Deliberate tax defaulter threshold rises to £50,000

At first glance, this Order looks tiny. It changes one figure in tax law, raising the deliberate tax defaulter publication threshold from £25,000 to £50,000. But if you are trying to understand how HMRC’s naming powers work, that one number makes a real difference. According to the statutory instrument published on legislation.gov.uk, the Treasury made the Order on 9 September 2026, it was laid before the House of Commons on 11 September 2026, and it comes into force on 2 October 2026. The document is signed by Christian Wakeford and Shaun Davies as two of the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty’s Treasury.

This is also a useful example of what a statutory instrument actually does. Parliament had already created the wider rule in the Finance Act 2009. The new Order does not build a whole new system; it uses a power inside that Act to amend one detail in the existing law. The legal power used here is section 94(12) of the Finance Act 2009. In plain English, that means Parliament had already given the Treasury permission to adjust this threshold through secondary legislation, rather than requiring a brand-new Act for a change of this size.

The detail being changed sits in section 94(1)(b) of the Finance Act 2009. Until now, the law said HMRC could publish details, including names, of people who had been penalised for deliberate tax defaults where the tax lost exceeded £25,000. From 2 October 2026, that figure becomes £50,000. If you read the instrument itself, the legal change is strikingly short. Article 2 simply swaps ‘£25,000’ for ‘£50,000’. That is often how secondary legislation works: a few words can quietly alter how a wider policy operates.

So what changes in practice? The threshold for public naming is higher. A person or business penalised for a deliberate default that led to tax lost above £25,000 but below £50,000 would have met the old threshold, but will not meet this part of the test once the Order is in force. **What this means:** this is about publicity, not the underlying tax bill. The Order does not wipe out tax owed, remove penalties, or suggest HMRC is treating deliberate non-compliance as minor. It changes the point at which HMRC can use this particular naming power.

That distinction matters because public naming can carry a consequence beyond money. When HMRC publishes someone’s details, the reputational effect can be serious, especially for a small firm or a local trader whose name is bound up with their business. Raising the threshold means fewer lower-value deliberate default cases are likely to fall within this publication rule. Just as important, the wider legal structure stays in place. HMRC still has the power to publish details in cases that cross the new £50,000 line, and the rest of section 94 continues to govern how that power works.

There is another good reading lesson in the text. Beneath the signed Order, the document says, ‘This note is not part of the Order’. That sentence matters. The Explanatory Note helps you understand what the instrument is doing, but the binding legal change sits in the operative articles above it. The Explanatory Note on legislation.gov.uk states the main point plainly: the threshold is increasing from £25,000 to £50,000. It also notes that section 94 had already been amended by the Finance Act 2016, which is a useful reminder that tax law is often built through a chain of small updates over time.

The government has also said the impact summary is already on record. The Order states that a Tax Information and Impact Note was published on gov.uk on 13 July 2026 and that it remains an accurate summary of the effects of this reform. That suggests ministers see this as a targeted adjustment, not a rewrite of HMRC enforcement policy. If you are teaching or learning from this example, four reading questions help. Who made the rule, what power lets them do it, which words have changed, and when does the new rule start? In this case, the answer is clear: HM Treasury has doubled the publication threshold for deliberate tax defaulters, and from 2 October 2026 the naming rule begins at £50,000, not £25,000.