A Beauty Salon was under inquiry, at first by undercover observations from August 2001 by the Joint Shadow Economy Team (JOSET), who amassed substantial observational evidence. They raided the premises in November 2001 and took further evidence by interviewing staff. They also obtained strong forensic evidence from the company records to support their allegations of a substantial suppression of income, which indicated that the business should have been VAT registered, as well as having filed incorrect income tax returns.
The proprietor had traded in her name for over four years since August 1997 but had been a partner in the business for in excess of 9 years before that and it was alleged that the fraud had been perpetrated over a long period.
Link were instructed to act after the inquiry was formally commenced and after some correspondence, gleaned the crux of the JOSET case by telephone conversation. Following detailed fact finding and planning, we arranged a meeting with the Inland Revenue and Customs officers, which was not attended by the client. During the course of this meeting we reached an agreed settlement, which was subsequently accepted by our client.
The settlement was restricted to the period under current ownership and VAT registration was back-dated to 18 months from the commencement of business. Our client was satisfied that the settlement was very fair.
