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Private equity scores a huge Labour tax climbdown

Rachel Reeves gives unprecedented new tax discount to a few thousand fund managers worth nearly £500m a year by 2028-29 by moving, rather than closing, the ‘carried interest’ loophole

Raising Standards in the UK Tax Advice Market: The Government’s next steps appear to be a march into the long grass

The Government’s next steps to regulate and improve standards in the UK tax advice market betray the aims and findings of the recent consultation and demonstrate a lack of political will on the issue.

Declaring an interest – why HMRC’s hike in charges on late paid tax is so concerning

Autumn Budget increases interest charge on late paid tax debt, exacerbating problems with those struggling to pay. Interest seems to be used to raise revenue and drive compliance, a concerning development.

TaxWatch’s initial reaction to Autumn Budget 2024

Rachel Reeves’ first Autumn Budget makes for a mixed bag of delivering a fairer tax system whilst raising government revenue

New statistics show £300m lost to offshore tax gap on over 7million accounts held overseas likely to be gross underestimate

HMRC’s first estimate of the offshore tax gap for 2018, seems a wild underestimate at just £300 million based on questionable methodological choices.

State of Tax Administration 2024: Rising tax debts, falling customer services and misfiring compliance

TaxWatch launches our State of Tax Administration report, analysing HMRC’s performance in 2023-24

New statistics show HMRC’s clampdown on R&D claims beginning to take effect

Latest HMRC figures show the cost of R&D relief claims increasing but in relation to fewer claims being made for 2022-23. This implies HMRC’s compliance changes are discouraging claims that are less likely to be qualifying, especially those of lower value or in particular sectors.

Sweet Deception: £4.4bn tax evasion leaves a sour taste for HMRC

NAO calls out HMRC for not having a strategic plan on tax evasion.

Unveiling the latest Box office smash hit: Creative industry tax relief reach record highs

Record levels of tax relief claimed by the creative industries sector in 2023. The reliefs are now dominated by fewer, extremely large, claims for film and ‘high-end’ TV programmes. TaxWatch questions whether these reliefs offer good value for money given the profitability of expensive productions in light of changes to the Audio Visual Expenditure Credit.

The SME R&D tax relief scheme: lessons in how not to implement a tax relief

Once again, the National Audit Office qualified HMRC’s accounts due to a “material level of error and fraud in Corporation Tax research and development reliefs”. Whilst the good news is that the estimated error rate within the relief is coming down it remains unacceptably high. It has taken years for HMRC to admit there were problems, despite plenty of warnings, and action has been too slow to avoid the situation getting totally out of hand.

Mining the gap

TaxWatch analyses the latest tax gap data and examines manifesto pledges to narrow the gap to see whether they represent credible plans to increase tax revenues

HMRC’s 2024 Tax Gap report: Amount of tax going unpaid hits record high at £39.8bn in 2022-23

TaxWatch analyses the latest Tax Gap publication, noting it has reached £40bn in 2022-23 yet still doesn’t cover offshore matters