Former Kettering shop boss didn't pay his taxes

HMRC publishes a list of deliberate tax defaulters

A former Kettering shop boss has been named and shamed by the Government for deliberately not paying his share towards funding public services.

Hiwa Mohammad Hassan, formerly known as Kheder Ali, has been named by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) as a tax defaulter after not paying what he owed.

Formerly trading as Alma Express in Montagu Street, Mr Hassan has been hit with a penalty of £55,157.78 after his deliberate actions.

The penalty was based on a tax default of £121,226 from May 2016 to October 2019.

Alma Express has since been taken over. The unit is now a shop called Euro Plus Food Supermarket.

A HMRC spokesperson said: “We are committed to making sure people pay the tax they owe.

"For the minority who refuse to pay, HMRC has a range of tools available and we are able to publish the names of those penalised under civil procedures for deliberately defaulting on certain tax obligations.

"This is about influencing behaviour by encouraging defaulters to engage with HMRC.”

The spokesman said they were unable to comment on individual cases.

Those who have deliberately not paid the correct amount in tax must repay the amount which should have been paid, together with the penalty arising from their behaviour.

The list of tax defaulters only includes details of those who’ve incurred a penalty because they’ve either deliberately provided one or more inaccurate documents to HMRC, deliberately failed to comply with an HMRC obligation or committed a VAT or excise wrongdoing.

HMRC's list does not details of any penalties which have been incurred due to the person’s careless, rather than deliberate, behaviour.

They only publish the details where those named have not made a full and immediate disclosure when HMRC started to investigate or prior to any investigation.

Last year we reported that Alma Express was also in trouble with Kettering Council and police after 'duty not paid' products were found in the shop.

The current list of deliberate tax defaulters, published online by the Government which lasts 12 months, also includes Burton Latimer's Kushboo as we reported earlier this year.