The waterways of Northern Ireland were busy last month with the celebration of the 2015 Tall Ships Festival. That festival was attended by many local boat owners of crafts of all sizes. But are those boat owners now the target of the latest HMRC task force?

HMRC announced that it has launched a taskforce to tackle wealthy tax cheats who are living beyond their means in Northern Ireland. The Department is using information from Land Registry and Merchant Acquirer data to identify those with “badges of wealth” such as large houses, aeroplanes, boats and undeclared offshore bank accounts which are not in keeping with the information they report to HMRC.

The taskforce is expected to recover nearly £18 million. It will bring together specialist officers from across HMRC to identify wealth indicators and cross reference them with the data HMRC holds about their owners.