by Mike Lewis | Jan 14, 2026
Yesterday (13 January) Parliament’s Treasury Select Committee grilled HMRC’s chief and senior staff about their efforts to tackle tax avoidance, evasion and debt. MPs referenced TaxWatch research and investigations in questions about corporate tax reliefs,...
by Jack McConnel | Dec 18, 2025
As the year turns, 2026 will see the start of the biggest change in a generation for how nearly three million people will do their taxes: the catchily-titled Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment (MTD for ITSA). From April 2026, digital record-keeping and...
by Mike Lewis | Aug 7, 2025
Summary: UK ministers last month hailed five of the UK’s Overseas Territories for putting in place searchable registers to reveal who really owns companies in their territory – a key tool against tax evasion, money laundering and other illicit financial activities....
by Mike Lewis | Jun 19, 2025
Summary: Quietly buried in HMRC spreadsheets released today is the news that the UK Tax Gap – the gap between tax due and tax collected – seems consistently to be billions of pounds bigger than HMRC previously estimated. New evidence suggests that the...
by Mike Lewis | May 16, 2025
HMRC is recovering more missing tax from wealthy individuals than previously: £5.2 billion in 2023/24. But beneath the headlines: the tax this group is underpaying may be larger than previously thought, and is likely growing, while penalties for their non-compliance...
by Mike Lewis | May 14, 2025
The government wants to step up the fight against enablers of tax abuse (again). New powers and better information can help. But HMRC is barely using some of the powers and penalties it already has. *** Laws that aren’t enforced are simply polite recommendations....
