Germanshepherdsmum
I know a lot more than you might think about the HMRC inquiry branch, of which I think you were not a member. I will simply say that the amount in question is not the deciding factor in pursuing a prosecution. The person from whom I have my information was until recently a very senior official in the inquiry branch. If people’s tax affairs were confidential would we know so much about Zahawi’s settlement? The decision to prosecute is above your pay grade wwm, admit it.
That is very rude Germanshpherdsmum. You have no idea what other people’s jobs were, and you never worked for HMRC. You are commenting based on hearsay, and not borne out by what the BBC have now reported.
‘The BBC has been told by a Labour source that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) concluded Angela Rayner did not owe any Capital Gains Tax over the sale of her former council house.
The agency is unlikely to comment itself because of tax privacy rules - but we’ve asked it just in case.
What we can say for sure is that the threshold for the HMRC to begin a probe that could lead to prosecution is so high it was always unlikely it would go down that route, even if it had thought there was money owing.
"Criminal investigation will be reserved for cases where HMRC needs to send a strong deterrent message or where the conduct involved is such that only a criminal sanction is appropriate," it says in its public policy.’
Examples include probes into organised crime and incidents linked to abuse of positions of responsibility, or deliberate deception.
Even when the HMRC suspects someone of really serious fraud, it will often make them a contractual offer: Promise to fully disclose what has been going on, and we will promise not to open a criminal file.