Steuerstrafrecht in Europa und den Vereinigten Staaten

1. Introduction

1.1. Legal background

The legal system in England and Wales is a complex setting in which to understand tax sanctions. This is due largely to historical reasons. The legal principles for founding tax sanctions are found both in the common law, and in specific statutory provisions. A number of tax sanctions have been introduced directly by way of statutes originated and approved by Parliament.

In this chapter, the writers’ have focused primarily on criminal law sanctions and not on civil penalties. This is a topical subject in light of the prevalence of tax fraud in the United Kingdom (‘the UK’) as a whole. A recent report from the accounting firm KPMG showed that direct “[t]ax and VAT frauds accounted for over 40 % of the major fraud cases brought before the UK Crown Court last year”. The findings showed ...