SME's dodge most tax

 SMEs dodge the most tax

Figures from HMRC show that SMEs are responsible for 51% of the £5.2bn "tax gap" between what is owed and what is paid. The Revenue divided small companies that avoid tax into four categories: the "unthinking evader" who engages in habitual "low-level evasion”, "invested evaders", who see tax evasion as an "unfortunate financial necessity", "lifestyle evaders" – seeking a better way of life, and "systematic evaders", who engage in more complex schemes and consider their misconduct as "integral to the business model". All four categories were found to believe that they had little chance of being caught and few had "any understanding of the potential scale of financial penalties", HMRC said.

Source:   The Times (11/10/2017)