HMRC publishes latest deliberate tax defaulters list

HMRC has published an updated list of deliberate tax defaulters. The list includes individuals, businesses and companies, detailing the amounts on which penalties are due and the exact penalties charged.

The details of a tax defaulter will be held on HMRC’s website for a maximum of 12 months from the date they are first published and are not stored within the National Archives.

The current list of deliberate tax defaulters (published on 24 September 2026) includes a Northampton-based business support company with an undeclared tax bill of over £9.1m and penalties of over £4.4m, alongside a retail sales company based in Nelson with an undeclared tax bill of almost £4.7m and penalties of almost £3.3m. There were also many smaller penalties listed for local trades and businesses, such as takeaways, convenience stores, letting agents, dog breeders, and mechanics.

A deliberate defaulter is defined as a person who incurs a relevant penalty for either deliberate errors in their tax returns or deliberately failing to comply with their tax obligations.

HMRC is legally permitted to publish these details where they have carried out an investigation, the person has been charged one or more penalties for deliberate defaults, and those penalties involve tax exceeding £25,000. Taxpayers who make an unprompted disclosure, or a satisfactory fully prompted disclosure, are not affected by these publication rules.