Tax avoidance: Punjab-origin restaurateur banned in UK

DIRECTOR OF PAISLEYBASED RAJA TANDOORI LIMITED RECEIVES 9-YR DISQUALIFICATION AFTER CONCEALING COMPANY’S TAX LIABILITIES FOR 5 YEARS

LONDON: A Punjab-origin takeaway restaurant boss from Scotland has been handed a nine-year ban from holding company directorship in the UK after he was found to have concealed tax liabilities from authorities for five years.

Kulwant Singh Lally, 58, was registered as the company director of Raja Tandoori Limited in Paisley, incorporated in January 2010 and wound up in 2018. The UK’s insolvency service investigators uncovered that Lally claimed to have incorporated the company just to protect the trading name, Raja Tandoori, but went on to use it as a vehicle for trading and failed to register that with the tax authorities. This meant that for five years, between February 2013 and February 2018, Raja Tandoori failed to pay any tax, resulting in the UK tax authorities claiming backdated tax payments and a fine to the value of 134,000 pounds (₹1.25 crore). “Company directors have a legal responsibility to ensure their companies pay the correct amount of tax but Lally clearly failed to do this for as long as the takeaway was trading,” said Rob Clarke, the chief investigator at the insolvency service.

From February 2013, Raja Tandoori traded as a takeaway from its premises on Old Sneddon Street until July 2018, when it was petitioned to be wound-up. In September 2018, liquidators were appointed to formally close down the company. It was the compulsory liquidation order that brought Raja Tandoori to the attention of the Insolvency Service, who conducted investigations into Lally’s conduct.

On June 23, the UK government accepted a disqualification undertaking from Lally after he did not dispute that he had concealed tax to the detriment of the tax authorities.

Lally’s company directorship ban is effective from July 14, after which he is banned for nine years from acting as a director or directly or indirectly becoming involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company.