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“Owners of dodgy shops that are evading tax: we are coming for you,” said Dan Tomlinson, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, as he announced that HMRC will make 30,000 high-street ‘interventions’ in the coming year as part of an initiative to tackle tax fraud and illegal activity.
Effectively, it is an aggressive campaign against vape shops, barbers, sweet shops and convenience stores from being used as fronts for criminal activity.
“Too many high streets have been blighted by illegal activity that harms local communities and undercuts honest businesses, and we’re determined to fix this. This is a sustained, nationwide effort, and HMRC and its partners will use every power available to dismantle these criminal networks,” added Mr. Tomlinson.
The new 350-strong team of criminal investigators to tackle evasion by small businesses, announced during the Autumn Budget 2025, has now been recruited.
To illustrate the work this team is carrying out, unannounced visits were made to six souvenir shops in central London last week involving representatives from HMRC, Home Office Immigration Enforcement, Westminster Council Trading Standards and the Metropolitan Police.
As a result, HMRC will continue tax compliance enquiries, the Home Office made three arrests for immigration-related offences and Trading Standards seized goods worth £5,433.
Businesses and activities that are being targeted include: - Cash-intensive businesses that may be associated with illegal activity. - Businesses engaged in money laundering and in breach of National Minimum Wage rules. - Businesses selling illicit goods such as vapes and tobacco. - Rogue directors who repeatedly shut businesses and reopen elsewhere (phenoxism). - Providers and users of electronic tools that manipulate sales records to launder money or suppress sales at the till.
UK businesses are facing a “cost of business crisis”, according to the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC). Its new cost-stack calculator shows government policy alone has pushed up an average firm's expenses by 70% over the past decade, adding roughly £827,000 a year in costs for a typical mid-sized business. About a quarter of the rise stems from the increase in employer National Insurance contributions, with the higher minimum wage and mandatory pension auto-enrolment also major contributors.
Under Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax, sole traders and landlords with income of more than £50,000 have been required to keep digital records and send quarterly updates to HMRC since 6 April 2026.
