HMRC has targetted restaurant owners in London who are deliberately evading paying tax as part of a new industry specific approach.

The new plan will involve preparing a team skilled up in a particular sector and then hitting that sector en masse, imposing high penalties and conducting prosecutions.

The tax evasion taskforce is initially focusing solely in London, but will be rolled out to Scotland and the North West shortly. Over the next year there will be a further nine task forces, with more to follow in 2012/2013. The tax evasion plan forms part of the government’s £900m spending review to tackle tax evasion, avoidance and fraud. One thing is quite evident from this, and that is HMRC is not losing its focus on tax evasion and its target to raise an extra £7bn each year by 2014/15.

Restaurateurs will need to ensure that their accounting records are kept up-to-date and stand the test of rigorous scrutiny.