The director of a construction firm has been disqualified for seven years after he failed to declare the company’s sales income.
Martin Baker was the sole director of C.J.M Tiling (CJMT), which traded as a construction company in Cradley Heath, West Midlands.
On 3 December 2015 and 4 March 2016, HMRC made unannounced visits to CJMT and identified the construction company had under-declared its VAT liabilities by failing to disclose all its sales.
An additional bank account was also identified in which sales income was deposited. HMRC raised an officer’s assessment for additional VAT liabilities of £205,262 for the period June 2012 to December 2015, as well as applying civil penalties of £90,146 to the company.
CJMT later entered liquidation on 26 January 2017 owing £469,673 to creditors, including at least £344,221 for VAT, and following the company’s liquidation, the Insolvency Service carried out its own investigations, leading to Martin Baker’s disqualification.
Baker has now been banned from acting as a director for seven years.
Baker admitted that he failed to ensure the company declared its true VAT liabilities on returns submitted to HMRC between June 2012 to December 2015, by failing to disclose all its sales.
He also admitted that a second company bank account was not disclosed to HMRC. This resulted in under-declarations of VAT due, as a consequence of which penalties were raised.
Jane Knight, deputy head of insolvency investigations for the Insolvency Service, said: "Under-declaration of the VAT due by a company deprives the exchequer of the monies needed to provide public services.
"In co-operation with HMRC, the Insolvency Service will not hesitate to investigate such misconduct with disqualification as a director the likely outcome."
