TaxWatch is an investigative think tank shining a forensic light on who pays tax, who doesn’t, and why
Anonymous online advisers mainstreaming tax secrecy strategies for ordinary taxpayers
We’re used to thinking of offshore tax avoidance and evasion as an elite, exclusive world of Swiss bank accounts and Caribbean law firms. But increasingly it involves anonymous social media channels and online consultations offering offshore entities set up online in minutes, privacy-enhanced cryptocurrency, and multiple passports. UK regulation hasn’t caught up with this reality.
The best spent money in Whitehall?
New figures show that HMRC’s efforts to make taxpayers pay the right tax brought in £22 for every £1 spent last year. That’s exceptional value for money. Nonetheless beneath the headline numbers there’s a more complicated story about how HMRC’s tax compliance efforts are changing.
Not just vape shops – the small business tax gap
According to HMRC figures released this week, small businesses are underpaying £37bn of due tax every year – roughly the replacement cost of Britain’s nuclear submarines. But this giant figure, already driving resource decisions, rests on an analysis of just 337 tax returns. And much of the missing tax may be accountants getting tax returns wrong, not high-street criminality and deliberate tax fraud.
The tax gap seems to be getting worse – and by more than we thought
HMRC’s latest figures present a very different picture to previous years. The amount of due taxes going unpaid may be £6 billion bigger than previously thought — and going up, not down. Any incoming prime minister (or Chancellor) will have to go faster and further to tackle tax non-compliance if they want to stick to current spending commitments, let alone introduce new ones.