New research from UK accountancy firm Saffery Champness has revealed that HMRC’s COP8 and COP9 investigations yielded a total of £610,292,968 for the Treasury in the financial years 2016/17 – 2018/19.

The data, obtained by Saffery Champness through a Freedom of Information Request (FOI) showed that COP8 investigations yielded £262,228,346 (43 percent) and COP9 investigations yielded £348,064,622 (57 percent) in the period analysed.

COP9 (Code of Practice 9) cases are criminal investigations launched in situations where HMRC suspects serious fraud has taken place. COP8 cases are civil investigations launched when ...