Tax crime chiefs summit commits to international action

The London summit, hosted by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), marked four years since the J5 group was established and renewed commitments to build on recent operational successes to find innovative solutions to some of the most complicated tax crime matters facing all five countries, providing global leadership on collaboration between tax authorities.

The week-long summit began with the J5 Challenge, which brings together investigators, subject experts, data scientists and others to analyse a range of data and intelligence, including that from decentralised exchanges, to identify tax evasion.

The event also included the inaugural Global Financial Institution Summit (GFIS) – the start of ambitious talks between the J5 and some of the world’s biggest banks on what more can be done to tackle tax crime together.

This was followed by a public-private partnership event where leaders from both sectors came together to examine key threats to the international tax system.

The summit culminated in a chief’s meeting where the partners discussed emerging threats and agreed on new operational priorities and targets. It follows a string of recent successes for the J5, including 10 individuals charged, following a suspected multimillion-pound investment and impersonation scheme, aimed at defrauding people across the globe.

Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Lucy Frazer, told the summit that tax fraud is a perennial and persistent threat to all our nations. Unity, transparency and collaboration will be essential if the committee is to tackle it.

“Put simply, tax cheats flourish when we fail to work together. Every scrap of information left behind by fraudsters – in any one of our jurisdictions – is a potential lead in the fight against global tax crime,” she said.

At the conclusion of the meeting, each chief signed on to a communique that reaffirmed their commitment to the organisation and summarised the progress made throughout the week.