PERSONAL FINANCE
TWO copycat websites designed to trick taxpayers into filing their tax return though them rather than the official Revenue & Customs site have been prevented from reaping rich rewards ahead of the self-assessment deadline at the end of this month.
The websites – taxreturnsubmission.co.uk and taxreturnportal.co.uk – have been removed from the top of search results for keywords such as ‘tax return’ by search engine Google. This follows a probe last week by The Mail on Sunday.
It means that the hundreds of thousands of taxpayers yet to file their return ahead of the January 31 deadline will not be fooled into paying the £500 fee that Progress Applications Limited, the owner of the two sites, charges for the online processing of returns.
Google’s swift action has been welcomed by consumer experts and follows its promises to the Government to assist in eradicating copycat sites from the internet.
The sites, usually set up by fly-by-night companies that never file accounts in breach of Companies House rules, charge processing fees for a whole range of services otherwise available via Government agency sites – everything from new passports, driving licences, through to the free European Health Insurance Card. They attract customers by paying Google – and other internet search engines – to appear at the top of searches for keywords. The sites are also often dressed up to look official.
Julian Siddle, director for policy and communications at consumer rights forum Legal Beagles, says: ‘We need to eradicate the plague of copycat websites. They set out to get users to part with money they wouldn’t have to if they went through the official channels.’ Tax return submission and tax return portal are not the first sites to exploit the panic among many taxpayers as the January 31 deadline approaches – and the threat of an automatic £100 Revenue fine looms. Last year, a company called Who4 tricked thousands of taxpayers into filing returns through a site called tax return gateway, charging anything between £150 and £1,000, depending on how much taxpayers said they earned. The Mail on Sunday obtained evidence from a mole inside Who4 confirming that the company raked in £7million in the run-up to the end of the tax year, allowing its three directors to buy a number of deluxe cars – including an Aston Martin DBS, an Aston Martin Vanquish and a Lamborghini Aventador.
Following an exhaustive investigation by this newspaper, Who4 was forced to shut down with the directors subsequently arrested by police, assisted by the eCrime unit of National Trading Standards. The cars and proceeds of the copycat scam were confiscated. The directors have now been charged and are due to appear next month before York and Selby Magistrates Court.
The latest tax return copycat websites are nowhere near as sophisticated as taxreturngateway. Like the Who4 site, they promise to provide ‘additional benefits’ such as form checking and follow-up calls in case of problems.
But any processing fees, not disclosed on the home page, are hidden from view. In its defence, the home page does contain the mandatory disclaimer that it is not affiliated with HM Revenue & Customs.
It is only right at the end, once a user has completed the online tax return, providing key details such as income, expenses, National Insur- ance number and unique tax reference number that a demand for payment is made. Following a warning that a failure to pay your tax can lead to ‘enforcement action’ a demand for ‘immediate tax submission fees’ of £500 is made.
The fee, it says, is based on the information that the taxpayer has provided although tax return submissions made last week by both Legal Beagles and The Mail on Sunday, using wide-ranging income and expenditure figures, all resulted in a request for £500.
Progress Applications is based in West Bridgford, Nottingham, and was only set up in October last year. Sole director is 21-year-old Connor Saunders who has set up a string of companies including Job Concern UK, Quick and Simple, Aftermarket Products, Simple Capital and STC Nationwide. No accounts for any of these companies have ever been filed. In the case of Job Concern, the accounts are overdue and a proposal has been made by Companies House for it to be struck off.
The Mail on Sunday tried to contact Progress Applications through the contact email address given on its two sites. But our email was ‘undeliverable’.
Google would not comment on the two specific websites. But it did say: ‘We do not allow the promotion of sites or services that conceal or misstate information about the business, product or service – for example, charging users for products or services typically available for free.’