The largest fine published last year was to a company found to have defaulted on £87.5 million worth of tax
The government has been regularly publishing the names and addresses of those who deliberately default on tax of more than £25,000 since 2015(Image: Loop Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images))
London’s biggest tax defaulters faced demands for more than £251 million from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) last year, more than three times the amount of any other year on record. A total of 184 companies based in the capital were named and shamed by HMRC in 2025 for deliberately defaulting on tax.
Those companies received £99 million worth of penalties for skipping £152 million of tax. It’s up from combined defaults and penalties of £82 million published in 2024, £81 million in 2023 and £27 million in 2022.
The government has been regularly publishing the names and addresses of those who deliberately default on tax of more than £25,000 since 2015. These are people or firms who received penalties for “deliberate errors in their tax returns” or “deliberately failing to comply with their tax obligations”.
Tax defaulters can avoid the list, however, if they fully disclose details of the defaults to the taxman. The naming and shaming happens only once penalties are final. Nationally, the amount published on the defaulters list last year for the whole country was more than in any previous year.
A total of £533 million in combined tax and penalties made the list in 2025, which was more than double the £209 million published in 2024. In 2023 it was £189 million, in 2022 it was £131 million, and in 2021 it was £143 million. However, campaigners still feel that the government could do more.
Mike Lewis, director of TaxWatch said: “Half a billion pounds is roughly the cost of a GP appointment for every child in the UK. It’s time HMRC got serious about prosecuting tax evaders. There were more people prosecuted last year for fishing offences than for tax fraud.”
He urged HMRC to do more to go after rogue accountants and tax advisers who turn a blind eye to unpaid tax, or even collude in it. He added: “To our knowledge HMRC has never used its powers to name dishonest tax advisers and tax agents – and has fined fewer than five of them in the last five years.”
An HMRC spokesperson said: “We are committed to tackling those who deliberately default on the tax they owe. By publishing the names of deliberate defaulters and their penalties, we send a clear message that non-compliance has consequences.”
London’s biggest tax defaulters named
The largest fine published last year was to Hive 360 Employer Limited (officially named 10442565 Ltd). The management consultancy firm, based in both Birmingham and London, was found to have defaulted on £87.5 million worth of tax between February 2019 and January 2024.
They were handed a penalty of £56.9 million, meaning they had to pay £144.4 million to HMRC. That’s actually the highest total default and penalty of any company to make it onto the list over the last decade.
Three other “Hive 360” companies operating out of the same London address were also on the defaulters list last year for defaulting on tax between February 2019 and July 2023. Hive 360 001 Limited defaulted on £4.4 million of tax, receiving a £2.8 million penalty. Hive 360 002 Limited defaulted on £10.1 million of tax with a £6.5 million penalty, and Hive 360 limited defaulted on £545,000 of tax with a £354,000 penalty.
That takes the total tax and fines for those companies to over £169 million. The companies have since entered into insolvency.
Property developer Hasan Nawaz Sharif, meanwhile, was London’s next biggest defaulter. He was published on the list in March having defaulted on £9.4 million of tax between April 2015 and 2016, earning a penalty of £5.3 million.
Meanwhile, Squibb Group Limited, a demolition company from Barking in London, were found to have defaulted on £8.2 million of tax between February 2011 and January 2015, receiving penalties of £6.2 million. This company has also gone into liquidation.
Software firm Residently Services (UK) Limited received a £1.4 million penalty for defaulting over £1.9 million worth of tax between 2019 and 2023.
GFP Payroll Ltd had penalties and defaults totalling £2.7 million, Risingstar Convergent Ltd had a total of £2.5 million, Advance Global Management Ltd had a total of £2.4 million, Ammos London Limited had a total of £2.2 million, and Elbrook (Cash and Carry) Limited had a total of £2.0 million. .
You can use our interactive tool below to find any tax defaulters near you:
The list of companies published by HMRC only includes those penalised under civil procedures and does not include criminal convictions for tax fraud. Some of the money owed may have been paid back and HMRC says the list “does not necessarily represent the full default of the taxpayer”.
The names of the companies are from the time of the default in tax. HMRC stress that it should be considered that the published person may have changed their behaviour, and that the business currently at the published address may have the same name as the published business but could be under completely new management.
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