Since 2012, HMRC had issued 850 penalties totalling £9m to high net worth individuals, with an average penalty of £10,500, the report added.
“That seems too small an amount to change the behaviour of multi-millionaires, particularly as avoidance is moving from off the peg marketed tax avoidance schemes to complex bespoke schemes, in effect from a high street equivalent of off the rail Primark or Next to made to measure Savile Row.
“In the five years to 31 March 2016 HMRC completed investigations into just 72 of these people for potential tax fraud. In 70 of these cases it used its civil powers: two were criminally investigated, of which just one was successfully prosecuted. This is a dismal record.”
