South Tyneside bricklayer named and shamed by HMRC for not paying taxes

A South Tyneside former self-employed bricklayer has been named and shamed by the government – and fined thousands of pounds - for not paying his taxes.

Rhys McMillan, 24, has been revealed as owing the taxman almost £31,911 in a latest list of national high-value defaulters.

McMillan, of Holbein Road, Whiteleas, has now been fined £14,265 for non-payment over five tax years, between April 6, 2020, and April 5, 2025.

Only individuals or businesses which owe over £30,000 appear in the document, which is updated every three months.

The latest, compiled and published by HM Revenue & Customs, names around 150 people or enterprises who have failed to cough up.

McMillan said the period covered started when he first worked as a self-employed bricklayer and he had not understood that he had to keep business receipts.

He described the fine as “stressful” but insisted he wanted to pay back what he owed and hoped to when he resumed employment, having just lost a new role in grounds working

On its website, HM Revenue & Customs describes those named as,‘The current list of people who deliberately got their tax affairs wrong.’

The agency says they have received penalties either for deliberate errors in their tax returns or deliberately failing to comply with their tax obligations.

It is allowed to publish information where it has carried out an investigation and the person has been charged one or more penalties for deliberate defaults and involve tax of more than £25,000.

Enough information is revealed to identify the tax defaulter, the penalties imposed, and the amount of tax on which those penalties are for.

The information is published once a penalty becomes final on either the day after the end of the appeal period if the person appeals, the date when an appeal is finally determined, or the date when a contract settlement is made.

It adds: “The law requires that we do not publish any information about the person for more than 12 months from the date we first publish it.

“The lists of deliberate tax defaulters will not be captured for The National Archives.”