South Shields restaurant named, shamed and fined for failing to pay thousands of pounds in tax

MVF South Shields Limited, which operates the Man Vs Food outlet in Dock Street, South Shields, has been fined £15,307 for failing to cough up £31,240 owing to the taxman – relating to less than five months of trading from March 1 to July 20, 2017.

HM Revenue and Customs has also placed the company on its national list of firms who, it says, have deliberately defaulted on paying a tax bill of at least £25,000.

To be included, a business must also have provided one or more inaccurate documents to HMRC, deliberately failed to comply with an HMRC obligation, or committed a VAT or excise wrongdoing.

Mohammed Mukhtar, 41, owner of MVF South Shields Limited, said: “This is being dealt with by my accountants.

“It’s the nature of the industry, there are difficulties around the economy.”

Man Vs Food began trading in November 2016, at the refurbished site of the former Dock pub and MVF South Shields Limited operates two other outlets, in Consett, Co Durham, and Middlesbrough.

Since April 2010, HMRC has been legally entitled to publish details of individuals or businesses which it says have failed to comply with tax laws.

It will only publish details where the taxpayer has not made a full and immediate disclosure when it started to investigate or prior to any investigation.

Those on the list are defaulters who have been dealt with using civil proceedings – not contain convicted tax criminals, who will have been found guilty of a criminal offence in open court.

HMRC is allowed to publish the name of the person who incurs the penalty including any trading name, previous name or pseudonym, and their address.

It can also disclose the nature of any business, the amount of the qualifying relevant penalty or penalties, and the qualifying potential lost revenue.

HMRC is forbidden from explaining the precise nature of the default, and strict rules apply as to what information it can disclose.

It publishes a list of deliberate tax defaulters quarterly, and MVF South Shields Limited was named in its September 2018 notice.