CH880220 - Agent operational guidance: dishonest tax agents: example of dishonestly omitting to do something

Mr Dolesden, a sole practitioner accountant, prepared tax returns for subcontractors in the construction industry.

A compliance check into one of his clients showed that private work, undertaken outside of the Construction Industry Scheme, was omitted from the client’s returns. At a meeting with Mr Dolesden and his client, HMRC officers were told that Mr Dolesden did not ask his client if he had income that was not covered by CIS vouchers.

The client later contacted one of the HMRC officers to say that he had given his accountant records of private work undertaken but Mr Dolesden had told him he didn’t want them.

The caseworker contacted Local Compliance Fraud, see CH880400, because the caseworker suspected that the tax agent had engaged in dishonest conduct.

Further investigations by specialist officers revealed that several of Mr Dolesden’s clients gave him their records of private work, but he chose to ignore them.

Mr Dolesden’s conduct is dishonest in that he omitted to include private work in his clients’ returns, when he knew that he should, in order to generate tax repayments to which his clients were not entitled.