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The HMRC press release (at http://tinyurl.com/221111OCU) issued on 22 November 2011, announcing the launch of a new offshore unit, the Offshore Co-Ordination Unit (OCU), refers to:

 ‘....HMRC’s compliance work to identify and pursue those who hide income and capital in offshore accounts to avoid UK tax and duties.’ [our emphasis]

 Although the bulk of the statement makes clear that the aim is to tackle offshore tax evasion, the reference to ‘hide income and capital ... to avoid UK tax…’ is an unhelpful inaccuracy in a public release, and HMRC should know better. Hiding money, whether offshore or onshore, clearly leads to tax evasion, not tax avoidance.

 When statements made by HMRC blur the distinction between evasion and avoidance of tax it can lead to confusion in the minds of taxpayers. We have previously observed that past references by HMRC to "relentless pursuit of those who bend or break the rules" can only really be interpreted as a blurring of the all-important distinction between criminal and legal activity. Another previous example of this was identified by the Chartered Institute of Taxation in relation to the wording of the vision and strategy statement of HMRC Anti-Avoidance Group on the HMRC website. As the CIoT observes, to fail to distinguish between behaviour that attracts criminal sanctions and that which does not, is neither in the public interest, nor that of HMRC.

 Surely this lax use of the English language cannot be a deliberate ploy to try and tar "avoiders" with the same brush as "evaders"? We hope that HMRC will try harder to make the appropriate distinction in the future.