Thread by @ianbeckett

@ArmitageJim @premnsikka 1/ ‘#HMRC uses new legal powers to name #tax avoidance schemes + their promoters - for the first time’. However, the HMRC would do better to really name the invariably shadowy figures & web of past/present ‘ops’ linked to the tax avoidance scheme.

2/ We’ve seen already the infamous Philippines based #AndersonGroup + its Filipino point woman Alona Varon that have targeted the UK for years with dozens of ‘outsourced payroll’ etc ops (

https://twitter.com/ianbeckett/status/1404775554205749248

). We’ve seen the alleged involvement of OCG’s …

3/ (Organised Crime Groups) in ‘outsourced payroll’ ops in an expose of the Glasgow restaurant scene by the Daily Record (

https://twitter.com/ianbeckett/status/1445743361176965133

). We’ve seen BBC FileOn4 expose alleged industrial scale ‘outsourced payroll’ fraud involving the recruitment (via #SocialMedia) …

4/ of >40,000 Filipinos + thousands of UK citizens to front tens of thousands of shell UK companies used in MUC (Mini Umbrella Company) alleged fraud - to exploit a £4k per company UK Govt. payroll employee allowance (freelanceinformer.com/contractors/re…).

5/ The HRMC this week named for the 1st time tax avoidance schemes it would target - #AbsoluteOutsourcing Ltd + #PurplePay Ltd “PPL” (gov.uk/government/new… ). However, some have said, the HMRC have just named ‘shells’. Taking PPL as an example, one doesn’t have to look far …

6/ to see a web of PPL like ‘umbrella’ (outsourced payroll) ops allegedly linked directly/indirectly to PPL + unsurprisingly the Philippines. A web of umbrella ops, some of whose punters have already received big HMRC retrospective tax bills (eg taxationweb.co.uk/forum/loan-cha…) & …

7/ whose honchos have called in the ‘mysterious world of corporate insolvency’ (as usual) to ‘make it all go away’. Notable in the ‘web’, the ‘double act’ of ‘Solutio’ & ‘Pay2U’. Pay2U’s marketing helpfully tells it was ‘powered by Solutio’ & contains testimonials from PPL, …

8/ Earnest Management Ltd (aka ‘Contractor Club’) & ‘Transparent Umbrella’ (depending on the date of the testimonial either UK cpy. no. 11031769 or 11899060, the former struck off, the latter showing overdue accounts/conf. statement). Solutio’s UK SPV’s (Solutio UK Ltd) …

9/ honchos include(d) Philippines resident David Bell (Philippines based online payroll ops - #Upraxis, #JustPayroll etc) & UK resident ‘deer farmer’/property developer - Julian Pilling. The filed UK accounts of Solutio (UK) Ltd show from 2018 £millions transferred offshore …

10/ seemingly to a Hong Kong linked SPV ‘Solutio Ltd’ (Coincidentally a HK SPV ‘Solutio Ltd’ was listed as Solutio (UK) Ltd’s PSC in 06/2021, tag-teaming from Julian Pilling). The filed accounts of Solutio (UK) Ltd show as accountants (+ reg. office) micro ACCA accountancy …

11/ firm ‘PMK & Associates LLP’, which appears as accountants +/or auditor +/or reg. office in many of the ops in the ‘web’. The ‘mysterious world of corporate insolvency’ was ‘on the scene’ in the form of the Newcastle office of #FRP Advisory multiple times.

12/ Back to the Philippines + David Ball who describes himself as founder & CEO of a ‘#Upraxis Global Ltd’. Probing Apple’s App Store yields a ‘Upraxis Global Ltd’ with 4 apps listed : 1. Solutio. 2. Azure Pay (linked to Umbrella ops). 3. Payday Payroll (Umbrella op). …

13/ 4. Transparent Umbrella Cpy. 1. We’ve met ‘Solutio’ already. 2. Azure Pay’s (aka Scottish SPV Azure Pay Ltd) website is now ‘dark’, it’s accounts show a massive increase in activity in 2020 coinciding with the creation of ‘Azure Pay Umbrella Ltd’ & several related SPV’s.

14/ 3. Payday Payroll’s App Store entry rather interestingly shows ‘Copyright Azure Pay’, + links to a Payday Payroll Ltd (Wenlock Road formation factory) Umbrella op webpage. 4. ‘Transparent Umbrella Company’ links to a website calling itself variously …

15/ ‘Transparent Umbrella Ltd’ & ‘Transparent Umbrella Co. Ltd’. However, the UK company number corresponds to ‘Transparent UC 2019 Ltd’ which currently shows both accounts & conf. statement filings as overdue - it was incorporated coincidentally around the same time …

16/ as the former ‘Transparent Umbrella Co. Ltd’ (FDP2 Ltd) from the ‘web’ we’ve superficially probed was ‘renamed’ prior to being struck off. In the trans-national web we’ve superficially probed, one ponders the highly confidential payroll data of UK citizens captured, …

17/ including not just name/address/DOB but also bank details + one assumes passport/driving licence data as well. It’s quite astonishing that the HMRC does not have to authorise/vet payroll processing ops. Meanwhile, the HMRC for years has sent out on an industrial scale …

18/18 to users of ‘Umbrella ops’ retrospective tax demands for huge amounts, whilst the HMRC/Govt. has seemingly allowed the ‘promoters’ to allegedly continue from the shadows.