"Loss of United Kingdom child benefit data (2007) The loss of United Kingdom child benefit data was a data breach incident in October 2007, when two computer discs owned by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs containing data relating to child benefit went missing. The incident was announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, on 20 November 2007. The two discs contained the personal details of all families in the United Kingdom claiming child benefit, of which takeup in the UK is near 100%. The discs were sent by junior staff at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) based at"
"Waterview Park in Washington, Tyne and Wear, to the National Audit Office (NAO), as unrecorded internal mail via TNT on October 18. On October 24 the NAO complained to the HMRC that they had not received the data. On November 8, senior officials in HMRC were informed of the loss, with Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling being informed on November 10. On November 20, Darling announced: The lost data was thought to concern approximately 25 million people in the UK (nearly half of the country's population). The personal data on the missing discs was reported to include names and"
"of this incident, people can be assured they have protection under the Banking Code so they will not suffer any financial loss as a result."" HMRC then set up a Child Benefit Helpline for those concerned about the data loss. The incident was a breach of the UK's Data Protection Act and resulted in the resignation of HMRC chairman Paul Gray; Darling commented that the discs were probably destroyed when ""the hunt was on, probably within days"" and that there was an ""opaque"" management structure at HMRS and it was difficult to see who was responsible for what. Gray was"
"from support for the scheme towards opposition. This appeared to have become more of a concern since the disclosure of the loss of 25 million records by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. In 2003, the announcement of the scheme was followed by a public consultation exercise, particularly among 'stakeholder groups'. At March 2003 the government stated that the overall results were: By July 2006, an ICM poll indicated that public support had fallen to 46%, with opposition at 51%. A further poll by YouGov/Daily Telegraph, published on 4 December 2006, indicated support for the identity card element of the scheme"
"manual for HMRC was in itself under restriction to only senior members of staff, not junior civil servants who had just a summary of what the manual says on security. This was followed by several other data scandals. On the 17th of December, it was revealed by Ruth Kelly that the details of three million learner drivers were lost in the United States. However the only details said to be lost were the: name, address, phone number, the fee paid, the test centre, payment code and e-mail, so not much of a panic was caused due to a reduced risk"
"million contract from the UK's tax authority, the HMRC, to review two million tax credit claims for fraud and incorrect tax credit awards. Tax credits are a form of UK social welfare benefit paid out to parents and workers on low incomes. By 2016, however, Concentrix was receiving heavy criticism from the cross-party parliamentary committee on welfare for incorrectly closing the claims of thousands of claimants, leaving them without money for essentials. A government report disclosed that of 36,000 appeals against Concentrix, 87% were upheld. In September 2016 the HMRC announced that it would not renew the contract, due to"
"to be involved in the expenses row. The UK tax authority HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has identified around 40 MPs, including the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, as having claimed for their tax return costs. A minority of these have affirmed they paid tax on the sums involved; HMRC have confirmed they are investigating former Chancellor Alistair Darling's tax claims, along with those of others involved. Darling had claimed the costs of preparing his tax return as an expense of his office, although tax law regards them as personal costs. Lord Millett, a former Law Lord, described Darling's claim"
"£33 billion was not collected due to the ""tax gap"", made up of money lost to tax evasion, tax avoidance, error and unpaid tax debts. This equates to a collection rate of 94.3% (up from 92.7 in 2005-6). At the end of March 2009, HMRC was managing 20 million 'open' cases (where the department’s systems identify discrepancies in taxpayer records or are unable to match a return to a record) which could affect around 4.5 million individuals who may have overpaid in total some £1.6 billion of tax and a further 1.5 million individuals who may have underpaid in total"
"(HMRC) now have to rely on websites such as WikiLeaks to obtain such documents, and indeed the documents in question have now appeared on WikiLeaks. Separately, another Barclays whistleblower revealed several days later that the SCM transactions had produced between £900 million and £1 billion in tax avoidance in one year, adding that ""The deals start with tax and then commercial purpose is added to them."" In February 2012 Barclays was forced to pay £500 million in tax which it had tried to avoid. Barclays was accused by HMRC of designing two schemes that were intended to avoid substantial amounts"
"set, known as the ""Falciani list"", with around 130,000 names of HSBC customers captured by the French police. It is not to be confused with another list from the Bank of Greece of 54,000 people who took €22 billion out of the country, and which has yet to be investigated. In 2006 and 2007 a computer technician for HSBC bank's Geneva branch, Hervé Falciani, allegedly stole data from his employer, containing the names of customers from several EU countries, and attempted to sell them to several governments. In January 2009 the police raided the French home of Falciani and found"
"terrorism and organised criminality. But Huhne disagreed with the government's response to the police and security services, saying: ""The Government’s Orwellian plans for a vast database of our private communications are deeply worrying. I hope that this consultation is not just a sham exercise to soft-soap an unsuspecting public.” In January 2009, Huhne was credited with uncovering an instance of data loss of government information caused by a courier company losing a computer disc containing bank details of up to 2,000 public servants working for the British Council. Huhne blamed the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, and the government for the"
"family's medical records, and private legal files. Allegations of hacking have also been brought up in relation to former Prime Minister Tony Blair, and the Royal Family. Other allegations put out by ""The Guardian"" newspaper include the exploitation, with intent to gain access to or use private information, of a list of 4,332 names or partial names, 2,987 mobile phone numbers, 30 audio tapes of varying length and 91 PIN codes, of a kind required to access the voicemail of the minority of targets who change the factory settings on their mobile phones. The names are said to include those"
"January 2006 the ECJ in the joined cases C-354/03, C-355/03 and C-484/03 found in favour of Bond House and ordered that the VAT owed to Bond House be repaid by HMRC. It was estimated that the decision would cost the UK government hundreds of millions of pounds as other companies make their claims. According to the case ""Federation of Technological Industries v Customs and Excise Commissioners"" [2004] EWCA Civ 1020 in 2002–03 the estimated cumulative cost of such frauds to the UK alone was between £1.65 and £2.64 billion (US$2.9 to $4.62 billion). According to the BBC, ""So-called 'missing trader'"
"subsequently found to be working at Cabinet Office. The Metropolitan Police and the Independent Police Complaints Commission both investigated the security breach, and uniformed police officers investigated HMRC offices. The loss led to much criticism by the Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable and Shadow Chancellor George Osborne. Osborne said: In addition he said that it was the ""final blow for the ambitions of this government to create a national ID database"". Cable also criticised the use of disks in the modern age of electronic data transfer. Spokespersons for Gordon Brown, however, said that the Prime Minister fully"
"HM Revenue and Customs Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HM Revenue and Customs or HMRC) is a non-ministerial department of the UK Government responsible for the collection of taxes, the payment of some forms of state support and the administration of other regulatory regimes including the national minimum wage. HMRC was formed by the merger of the Inland Revenue and Her Majesty's Customs and Excise, which took effect on 18 April 2005. The department's logo is the St Edward's Crown enclosed within a circle. The department is responsible for the administration and collection of direct taxes including income tax and"
"acquired by the German secret service Bundesnachrichtendienst. The CD, containing large amounts of information on accounts held by German citizens and other nationals with the bank, was allegedly obtained for a sum of €4 million from a former employee or contractor of the bank. Information was also forwarded to many other European states and Australia, leading to successful investigations there. Rating: Standard & Poor's / Moody's (2017) LGT Group LGT Group is the private banking and asset management group of the princely House of Liechtenstein. LGT, originally known as The Liechtenstein Global Trust, is the largest family-owned private wealth and"
"material for 10 days from 30 April 2009. There is an unresolved issue with the data itself, with different numbers being cited by different sources. ""The Daily Telegraph"" stated that 4 million pieces of information existed; ""The Guardian"" stated there were 2 million (""two million documents in all, including copies of expense claim forms, handwritten comments scrawled in margins, even attached sticky notes"").</small> In May 2009, major national newspapers such as ""The Times"" described the resulting controversy as ""Parliament's darkest day"" and a ""full blown political crisis"", reporting upon cross-party firings and resignations, an exodus of shamed MPs, the prospect"
"to £15. The LVCR allowed online retailers of DVDs and CDs to avoid VAT by importing the goods from the Channel Islands, which are not part of the EU. Major retailers involved in this tax avoidance included Amazon, Asda, HMV, Play.com, Tesco, W H Smith and Woolworths. The tax avoided each year due to LVCR was estimated to be £85m in 2005, £110m in 2008, £130m in 2010 and £140m in 2011. From 1 April 2012 the relief was withdrawn in respect of goods imported to the UK from the Channel Islands. Opponents of VAT claim VAT is regressive and"
"considerable extra powers to the police. With the conjunction of the Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise into Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), HMRC essentially gained extra powers since Customs and Excise had a statutory right of entry into a private dwelling, that is to say they were allowed to break and enter without reason, but the Inland Revenue did not. PACE and its subsequent enactments limits that. Various other government agencies including TV Licensing, the Royal Mail, BT Group (from its days of being spun off from General Post Office Telephones) and about seventeen others also have"
"than 100,000 clients from over 200 countries evade tax worth hundreds of millions of pounds. At the time of the alleged offences Green was the Swiss bank’s chairman. BBC presenter Richard Bilton confronted Green, who refused to discuss the issue saying only: “As a matter of principle I will not comment on the business of HSBC past or present”. Chairwoman of the Public Accounts Committee, Margaret Hodge MP, said: ""Either he didn't know and he was asleep at the wheel, or he did know and he was therefore involved in dodgy tax practices. Either way he was the man in"
"the UK's VAT collection agency, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The second trade has collected £240,000 in VAT but paid £220,000 in VAT and therefore has to pay only the difference (£20,000) to HMRC. The third trader has charged no tax on its sale abroad, but has paid £240,000 in VAT and can therefore reclaim £240,000 from HMRC. In the fraud, the first business vanishes without paying the VAT to HMRC. When the last business in the chain collects £240,000 on the despatch, all of the businesses can vanish, £220,000 better off at the expense of HMRC. As the VAT"
"in 2014–15, however a subsequent report in May 2016 suggested that performance improved following the recruitment drive. HM Revenue and Customs Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HM Revenue and Customs or HMRC) is a non-ministerial department of the UK Government responsible for the collection of taxes, the payment of some forms of state support and the administration of other regulatory regimes including the national minimum wage. HMRC was formed by the merger of the Inland Revenue and Her Majesty's Customs and Excise, which took effect on 18 April 2005. The department's logo is the St Edward's Crown enclosed within a"
"the leaked documents. Corporate services provider First Names Group acknowledged erroneously providing his information to Mossack Fonseca. MF records show Kejriwal as director of three offshore companies based in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), and holding two private foundations in Panama and power of attorney of another BVI company. He acknowledged having had offshore companies but said he shut them down after a short period of time. The name of deceased drug kingpin Iqbal Mirchi has also surfaced in the papers. Some 500 Indian citizens appear to be mentioned. Indian government ordered an inquiry, and subsequently announced that it was"
"Comrs of Customs and Excise v Barclays Bank plc Her Majesty's Commissioners of Customs and Excise v Barclays Bank Plc [2006] UKHL 28 is a leading English tort law case concerning negligent misstatement and pure economic loss. Customs and Excise needed to freeze the bank account of a Barclays customer. By law, banks are required to comply with requests for freezing orders and are paid for the service. When it received the request, a Barclays employee replied that it had frozen the bank account. But it had not, and the customer proceeded to empty all of the money from the"
"£180 million were investigated in 2015 as the likely proceeds of corruption — almost all bought through offshore companies. Two-thirds of the purchases were made by companies registered in four British Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies which operate as tax havens – Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and the British Virgin Islands (BVI) – according to Land Registry data obtained by ""Private Eye"" magazine through freedom of information requests. The seller's market has sent prices skyrocketing out of reach for many Londoners. Included among the Papers are the names of six members of the House of Lords, several of"
"surveys to 1,215 drivers, the DVLA sent out confidential details, but to the wrong owners. The error occurred during the sending out of routine surveys, and was not discovered until members of the public contacted the DVLA to notify them of the error. In 2009 BBC's ""Watchdog"" reported that entitlements, specifically the entitlement to drive a motorcycle, were being lost from reissued driving licences. In 2005 the same programme highlighted drivers who had lost entitlements to drive heavy goods vehicles in a similar way. In 2010 it was revealed that the DVLA had sold drivers' details from the database to"
"have meant that serious cases would be overlooked due to the abundance of minor incidents. There were doubts towards the government’s estimate of the cost of the database. The information commissioner estimates it at £1bn, which Hodge said was 'absurd', and others raised concerns over the cost, noting that government projects tend to go over-budget. Some questioned children’s ability to give informed consent in their own right. Mary Marsh, chief executive of the NSPCC, wanted the database to cover the whole of the United Kingdom, not just England and Wales, saying 'the information held would be only partial and potentially"
"functions moved to the new Serious Organised Crime Agency, as well as prosecutions moving to the new Revenue and Customs Prosecution Office. A further programme of job cuts and office closures was announced on 16 November 2006. Whilst some of the offices closed will be in bigger cities where other offices already exist, many will be in local, rural areas, where there is no other HMRC presence. The numbers of job reductions and office closures has not been officially announced, but the proposals imply that up to 200 offices will close and a further 12,500 jobs were to be lost"
"massive tax fraud in several European countries over long periods. Macquarie's internal documents, reviewed by a collaboration between 17 European media, show that Macquarie continued to make money available for speculation and fraud with dividend tax after their legal advisers expressed concern. Macquarie Group through its subsidiary Macquarie Equipment Rentals was criticised by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for suing 300 small businesses caught up in misleading telephony bundling deals. In 2017, Macquarie, via a deal in which it acquired Thames Water, a private utility company responsible for public water supply and waste water treatment in the London region"
"have the same ability as Customs Officers to monitor suspects and arrest them. On 19 July 2006, the Executive Chairman of HMRC, Sir David Varney resigned. HMRC is also listed under parts of the British Government which contribute to intelligence collection, analysis and assessment. Their prosecution cases may be coordinated with the Police or the Crown Prosecution Service. The department is organised around four operational groups, each led by a director general. The four operational groups are: In addition to the four operational groups, there are five supporting groups. These are: HMRC deals with the top 2,000 large business via"
"120,000 people and companies. Among those whose financial affairs are mentioned are, separately, AIG, Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth II, President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos, and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. At 1.4 terabytes in size, this is second only to the Panama Papers of 2016 as the biggest data leak in history. On 20 October 2017, an anonymous Reddit user hinted at the existence of the Paradise Papers. Later that month, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) approached the offshore law firm Appleby with allegations of wrongdoing. Appleby said that some of its data had been"
"20,000 offshore companies between November 2006 and March 2007. The data for this period comes from files removed from HSBC Private Bank by a former staffer, software engineer Hervé Falciani, who fled to Lebanon with the attempt to sell it. Later he handed it to French authorities in late 2008. The case was referred to French prosecutors in January 2009, and they have since concentrated their investigations on a small part of the “Falciani lists” – the around 3'000 French citizens suspected of having concealed their money at HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) with the bank's collusion. The bank has de"
"those media organisations are owned by individuals implicated in the papers, such as ""Daily Telegraph"" owners David and Frederick Barclay, ""Daily Mail"" owner Jonathan Harmsworth, and ""The Sun"" and ""The Times"" owner Rupert Murdoch. After the leak, more than 30 Members of the European Parliament issued an open letter criticizing the British government for failing to take action against the offshore tax industry. Gavin St Pier, an elected Deputy of the tax haven Guernsey, stated that the ""coverage was part of a well-orchestrated, ongoing campaign"". He also averred that despite having the information since 2016, the timing of the release"