Budget 2015: Govt eyes extra £3bn from tax avoidance clampdown

The government expects to collect an extra £3.1bn from those found to have avoided or evaded tax payments - and those professionals who help them - Chancellor George Osborne said in his Budget speech today.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) will introduce a series of hardened measures as part of its increased crack-down on tax avoidance, which has already yielded £5bn, Osborne said. The Revenue service will unveil plans for new criminal charges for tax evaders and the professionals that help them. It will review inheritance tax avoidance through deeds of variation by the autumn. It will also issue more accelerated payment notices, making use of its new powers to ask investors in tax avoidance schemes to pay any disputed tax upfront. Osborne said: "Let the message get out: this country's ...