Latest news with #taxscam
Malay Mail
16 hours ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
Crime ring steals £47m from UK tax office in phishing scam
LONDON, June 5 — Organised criminals stole £47 million (RM270 million) from Britain's tax office last year by using phishing tactics to access more than 100,000 customer accounts and falsely claim payments from the government. A notice posted by His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) on the government website on Wednesday disclosed the unauthorised access and said no customers had suffered financial loss. HMRC deputy chief executive Angela MacDonald, speaking to lawmakers in parliament, said fraudsters masquerading as customers had managed to extract three payments, totalling £47 million. 'That is a lot of money, and it's very unacceptable,' she said. Chief executive John-Paul Marks, speaking alongside MacDonald in what was a scheduled committee hearing on the work of the tax office, said a criminal investigation into the incident had taken place last year leading to some arrests. 'This was organised-crime phishing for identity data outwith of HMRC systems,' Marks said. HMRC said it had written to affected customers, locked down their accounts, deleted login details and removed any incorrect information from tax records. Taxpayers did not need to take any action, it added. 'This was an attempt to claim money from HMRC, not an attempt to take any money from you,' the tax office notice said. In a separate statement emailed to Reuters, HMRC said the incident was not a cyberattack. 'It involved criminals using personal information from phishing activity or data obtained elsewhere to try to claim money from HMRC,' the statement said. — Reuters
The Guardian
a day ago
- Business
- The Guardian
100,000 UK taxpayer accounts hit in £47m phishing attack on HMRC
HM Revenue & Customs has lost £47m after a phishing scam breached tens of thousands of tax accounts, a group of MPs has heard. Two senior civil servants at the tax authority told the Treasury committee that 100,000 people had been contacted, or were in the process of being contacted, after their accounts were locked down in what the officials said was an 'organised crime' incident that began last year. Taxpayers affected would suffer 'no financial loss', said John-Paul Marks, the HMRC chief executive. He told the committee: 'It's about 0.2% of the PAYE population, around 100,000 people, who we have written to, are writing to, to notify them that we detected activity on their PAYE account.' Asked whether this applied to individual working people's PAYE accounts, not companies, Marks replied: 'That's right, individuals. To be clear, no financial loss to those individuals.' He added: 'This was organised crime phishing for identity data outwith of HMRC systems, so stuff that banks and others will also unfortunately experience, and then trying to use that data to create PAYE accounts to pay themselves a repayment and/or access an existing account.' An investigation into the matter, which took place last year 'including jurisdictions outside the UK', led to 'some arrests last year', Marks told MPs. Angela MacDonald, HMRC's deputy chief executive and second permanent secretary, added: 'At the moment, they've managed to extract repayments to the tune of £47m. Now that is a lot of money, and it's very unacceptable. 'We have overall, in the last tax year, we actually protected £1.9bn worth of money which sought to be taken from us by attacks.' MacDonald stressed the breach was 'not a cyber-attack, we have not been hacked, we have not had data extracted from us'. She later added: 'The ability for somebody to breach your systems and to extract data, to hold you to ransomware and all of those things, that is a cyber attack. That is not what has happened here.' HMRC said it had locked down affected accounts and deleted log-in details to prevent future unauthorised access. Any incorrect information has been removed from tax records and officials have checked to ensure no other details have been changed. People affected will receive a letter from HMRC over the next three weeks. Marks also told the committee that HMRC phone lines were down on Wednesday afternoon, but said this was 'coincidental'. They will be 'back up and available in the morning', he added. An HMRC spokesperson said: 'We've acted to protect customers after identifying attempts to access a very small minority of tax accounts, and we're working with other law enforcement agencies both in the UK and overseas to bring those responsible to justice. 'This was not a cyber-attack – it involved criminals using personal information from phishing activity or data obtained elsewhere to try to claim money from HMRC. We're writing to those customers affected to reassure them we've secured their accounts and that they haven't lost any money.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Tell Kansas' senators not to give ultra-wealthy a ‘Big Beautiful' tax loophole
'I want a big beautiful yacht! Sell that $10 million stock I bought for $6 million — woo hoo! What? You want me to donate it to a private school voucher program? Nope, I don't believe in those. A tax loophole? OK, well, donate it to children's cancer research instead. What do you mean that won't work?' How's that for a fun new federal tax scam to help the super-wealthy? 'Donate' $10 million in stock to charity, purchased for $6 million — then get all $10 million back in tax credits and avoid more than $1 million in capital gains taxes. Massive benefits for already rich individuals — you gotta love it. And it's all created by House Resolution 1 in Congress — the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act.' Kansas Reps. Ron Estes, Tracey Mann and Derek Schmidt all voted yes for it. Who benefits from these 'donations'? Farmers devastated by drought? Disabled veterans? Your cherished cause? No. At best, you net a maximum tax benefit of 35 cents per dollar. Donating that $10 million to any other cause would likely net a just $3.5 million tax benefit, not enough for that $10 million yacht. The 'dollar for dollar plus' tax scheme was cooked up for nonprofits known as Scholarship Granting Organizations, for private school vouchers only, such as Renewanation, a Virginia-based SGO operating in Kansas, whose mission is to promote the 'Christian worldview.' If your donations go to one of these entities, you get back everything you put in as tax credits, plus you skirt the capital gains tax. Rep. Estes, whose constituent Charles Koch could have profited $2.4 million from this loophole, voted no on an amendment to end it. Koch's state Rep. Susan Estes, supports Senate Bill 87, another expansion of the Kansas voucher program, which attempted to make the state tax credit equal to 100% of voucher donations, and create three new categories of eligibility with no income limits at all. The federal voucher would benefit families with incomes at or below 300% of the area's median income. In Johnson County, this includes families earning over $320,000, based on 2023 data. The Wichita Diocese, in the Estes' districts, operates the only Catholic schools in the country that charge no tuition, doing so successfully for 28 years before private schools came to the Legislature to siphon tax revenue. Since 2014, these schools have received $9.7 million of the $32 million that could have funded other state priorities, such as public safety, agriculture and the Intellectual/Developmental Disability waitlist. Why aren't we promoting the Wichita stewardship model instead of funding private schools using public funds with no accountability? Evidence shows we shouldn't support vouchers at all. More than 60 of 105 Kansas counties don't have private schools. Those that pop up in response to vouchers have a terrible track record of student learning losses. Elite private schools parents dream of can still deny any child admission for any reason they want. Vouchers overwhelmingly benefit students already enrolled in private schools (92% in Oklahoma), and raise tuition at private schools (21-58% in Iowa), keeping them out of reach for low-income families, even with the voucher. One Big Beautiful Bill creates one big beautiful windfall for one type of charitable contribution, unavailable for any other cause — wildly unprecedented cronyism in the federal tax code. Whether the ultra-wealthy agree with vouchers or not, their accountants would be absolutely negligent in their fiduciary responsibility if they don't recommend this profitable way to liquidate appreciated stocks. Research from the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy notes it harnesses 'wealthy families' interest in tax avoidance and personal profit as a means of bolstering private schools at the expense of public budgets' — to the tune of $26 billion of federal and state dollars over the next 10 years if capped. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas wants no cap. Angry? Me, too. Tell Kansas Sens. Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall — and Sens. Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt in Missouri — to vote no on this egregious tax scheme for the super-wealthy. Perhaps suggest that they fund special education at the full level in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act instead? Mari-Lynn Poskin represents District 20 in the Kansas House of Representatives.
