Our Enablers team is always sniffing around the agents and advisers who make tax evasion possible for the super-wealthy. Going after these people is meant to be a core pillar of HMRC’s strategy, especially in a post-Panama Papers world. 

But TBIJ obtained figures that show the Treasury was wildly off the mark when it told a Labour peer it had prosecuted 29 of these tax evasion “enablers” in 2018/19. The real number was 16. 

Lord Sikka, the Labour peer who’d been given the duff information, was furious and called it “contempt of parliament”. He said: “There is no defence for this. HMRC data is not reliable and has never been.”

Sikka wasn’t alone in his outrage. Claire Aston, director of the independent investigative thinktank TaxWatch, said the “precipitous decline” in prosecutions shows HMRC “aren’t actively tackling those making money from this crime”. But, she said, “more concerning is that HMRC isn’t keeping accurate records of the numbers prosecuted”.

We got the real numbers via Freedom of Information laws, which grant the public a general right to access recorded information held by most UK public authorities. They also revealed that 16 prosecutions was HMRC’s peak performance, with numbers plummeting to fewer than five the next year – and staying that low every year since. 

Tackling enablers became a priority for HMRC after the Panama Papers leaks revealed how white-collar advisers were instrumental in setting up complex arrangements for widespread tax-dodging. HMRC’s definition of “enablers” includes a range of professionals rather than just tax planners and wealth advisers, but even with a broad scope there has been little meaningful action. 

The tax authority’s enforcement teams have taken big hits in recent years from both Covid-19 and Brexit. TBIJ reported last year on the fallout: prosecutions after HMRC investigations fell by more than two thirds in five years, while not a single company had been taken to court for enabling tax evasion since landmark powers were introduced in 2017.

Before the UK elections last year, Labour promised to crack down on tax evasion by the wealthy. It made that pledge based on the yawning gaps TBIJ had exposed, I’m proud to say. But it’s time enforcement stepped up. 

Dan Neidle, who used to be head of tax at Clifford Chance and now runs his own thinktank, Tax Policy Associates, said: “A handful of prosecutions, cloaked in secrecy, won’t change anything. Prosecutions are expensive undertakings, but public confidence in the tax system requires them.”

An HMRC spokesperson told TBIJ: “The numbers provided to parliament in 2023 on the prosecution of tax fraud enablers were not accurate and we apologise for that. We issued these figures in good faith and understood them to be correct at the time but have since identified errors, corrected them and lessons have been learned.

“Tackling enablers of tax fraud remains a top priority for us and we currently have more than 150 enablers under criminal investigation. We’re determined they face the consequences as much as those carrying out tax fraud.”

Well, I look forward to seeing how far HMRC gets with those. TBIJ will certainly be paying attention, even if no one else is.

Factchecked!

Each week we reveal a fascinating fact from our reporting…

Did you know?

Unregulated ‘parental alienation’ experts shape crucial custody rulings. Melanie Gill has testified in family courts for more than 15 years without formal registration, influencing cases that removed children from their mothers’ care.

Find out more

We revealed how Gill’s unregulated expertise has played a pivotal role in family court decisions, often favouring fathers in custody disputes. Her rise from a music promoter to a court-appointed authority raises significant concerns about the qualifications required for such influential roles in the family justice system. ​

Read more here.

Meta court case clears legal hurdle

There’s been a significant step in a £2bn legal case against Meta, the company that owns Facebook. 

A Kenyan court has ruled that a case against Meta over fueling ethnic violence in Ethiopia can go ahead.

The petition, which was originally filed back in December 2022, cites our reporting. In February of that year, TBIJ spoke to Ethiopian civilians who had said that their family members were killed because of posts on Facebook. 

One of those we spoke to at the time, although he couldn’t go on the record then, was Abrham Meareg Amare, now the lead claimant in the case against Meta. (The other is Fisseha Tekle, a former Amnesty International researcher.)

Meareg Amare says that his father, a professor at Bahir Dar University in Amhara, Ethiopia, was murdered after two Facebook posts targeted him as a member of the Tigrayan ethnic group. The posts included a photo of Professor Meareg Amare Abreha, details about where he lived and false claims that he was corrupt and helping the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, an armed group at war with the Ethiopian government at the time.

Professor Abreha was shot twice outside his home, once in the shoulder and once in the leg. For the next seven hours armed militants prevented his family from helping him and he died in the street.

The posts targeting Professor Abreha were just two of many that have spread hate and incited violence towards different ethnic groups in Ethiopia. The Tigray war, which began in 2020, killed hundreds of thousands, including many in ethnically motivated killings. The petition alleges that Meta repeatedly failed to take down posts calling for violence, including those promoting concentration camps and rape as a weapon of war.

The petition is also asking Meta to:

• change its algorithms and moderation practices to stop the spread of viral hate speech;

• take steps to demote incitements to violence on its platforms and;

• hire enough content moderators to avoid further damage in East and Southern Africa.

We like to keep an eye on how our reporting makes a positive impact in the world. We’ve been on Meta’s case for years now, exposing where it hasn’t been living up to its own policies or where its activities have damaged society. So it’s important for us to see the fruit of our reporting in cases like this one. 

We’ll keep you posted on what happens.