HMRC Issues First Individual Avoid Taxes Avoid Notification Former Attorney Paul Baxendale-Walker
HM Revenue & Customs has issued an initial tax avoidance cessation notice to individuals and ordered Paul Baxendale-Walker (the striker attorney and former barrister) to stop promoting two programs that the Revenue Department considers to be abused and labor.
HMRC confirmed in a landmark move that these stops marked the first time orders were issued to individuals rather than companies, highlighting the government’s intentions, regardless of the plan structure.
Two arrangements promoted by Mr. Baxendale-Walker involve offshore trusts and complex structures, designed to allow users to obtain funds while avoiding taxes. The HMRC has evaluated these plans as plans with no real business purpose and is designed solely to exploit tax vulnerabilities.
HMRC Anti-Avoidance Director Jonathan Smith said: “The court has concluded that Mr. Baxendale-Walker has designed and sold a variety of tax avoidance programs that would not work as required. These stop notices send a clear message: We will use all the tools of disposal to protect all of our tools to protect public finance from tax avoidance.”
These notifications were issued under the government’s strengthened anti-avoidance framework, part of a broader strategy to close tax gaps and protect funds for important public services.
Tax Avoidance Stop Notice is a formal legal order that requires the recipient to immediately stop promoting a specific program. Failure to comply can lead to significant fines or even criminal prosecution.
Mr. Baxendale-Walker, formerly a subject of legal actions and law enforcement procedures related to tax avoidance, is now banned from marketing or promoting these two specific programs.
Now, plans for the plan have been added to the HMRC’s tax avoidance arrangement list, but to stop the notice, which can be made available to the public on gov.uk.
HMRC calls on public and professional consultants to report on any ongoing promotion of these programs. Anyone who knows that Mr. Baxendale-Walker continues to promote them is urged to contact the department through its website.
It is recommended that they may use a tax avoidance program (whether promoted by Baxendale-Walker or others) and it is recommended to contact HMRC by email: cagethelpoutoftaxavoidence@hmrc.gov.uk Contact HMRC now.
This move is an important step in the government's ongoing efforts to combat aggressive tax plans and shows that individual sponsors (not just companies) now have a firm grasp of the HMRC's gaze.
