Three Scottish businesses that dodged more than £250,000 in tax have been publicly named and hit with penalties totalling almost £170,000. The firms – a coach driver agency and two building bosses – appear on HM Revenue and Customs' (HMRC) latest list of deliberate tax defaulters.
HMRC said it publishes the names of those who deliberately fail to pay their bills because tackling unpaid tax is key to strengthening the economy and funding public services.
HMRC warning to deliberate defaulters
An HMRC spokesman said: “Publishing the names of deliberate defaulters and their penalties sends a clear message across Scotland and the rest of the UK that those who deliberately don’t pay what they owe will face the consequences.”
Construction company boss Mihai-Iulian Tomsa, from Glasgow, was ordered to pay more than £73,000 – the biggest fine of any Scottish company this quarter. The penalty comes on top of a £107,000 bill left unpaid over five years, between April 2019 and April 2024.
Coach agency and builder penalised
Glasgow Coach Drivers Ltd, which describes itself as the “largest Scottish dedicated coach driver agency in the UK” with a team of more than 100 drivers, was found to have deliberately avoided paying more than £79,000 in tax. It was fined more than £54,000 for tax racked up in January 2023 and between September 2023 and February 2025.
George Ion Coaca, a builder from Inverness, was fined almost £44,000 for deliberately defaulting on more than £64,000 of tax between April 2024 and April last year. The Record has attempted to contact each business for comment.
List published since 2015
The Government started publishing a list of tax dodgers in 2015. It said the list features cases where there have been deliberate errors in tax returns or deliberate failure to comply with tax obligations. Names appear where HMRC carried out a probe and the person has been charged with one or more penalties for deliberate defaults, or where those penalties involve tax of more than £25,000.
The law states the information will appear on the list for 12 months, and those named must pay the outstanding tax bill plus a fine. Last year it emerged that more than 4,000 of the UK’s biggest defaulters had faced demands for over £1.5 billion from HMRC over the last decade.
