TaxWatch is an investigative think tank shining a forensic light on who pays tax, who doesn’t, and why
Staffing delays could threaten Chancellor’s £15 billion tax revenue plans
Though it’s been absent from the pre-Budget debate, the Chancellor’s second-biggest revenue-raising policy so far is a plan to boost HMRC’s personnel & systems: recruiting 6,700 more staff to chase an extra £15.5 billion of evaded tax and tax debts. Yet TaxWatch has found that just 26 of these promised new staff are yet in post, calling into question a key plank of the government’s tax and spend plans.
In the run-up to a make-or-break Budget, TaxWatch’s new State of Tax Administration report takes a deep dive into how HMRC has been running the tax system over the last year.
Has the Chancellor agreed a $6 billion tax break for US big tech?
A tax deal for US multinationals backed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves could hand US companies a $40 billion annual tax break next year, including some $6 billion for US tech giants, according to new analysis from TaxWatch.
Over half of £2 billion UK tax break goes to just ten companies, and over a quarter to just one
Previously undisclosed figures show that a single large pharmaceutical company has received a £3.4 billion tax cut – including £486 million in 2024 alone – from a little-scrutinised tax incentive supposed to stimulate UK innovation, jobs and manufacturing, even though that company has cut UK jobs and shut down UK factories.
New TaxWatch briefing tackles three myths about the Digital Services Tax
As the US President prepares to fly into the UK with tech bosses in tow, a new briefing from TaxWatch shows that the US government and tech industry representatives have made strongly inaccurate claims about the UK’s Digital Services Tax.