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....
by Claire Aston | Apr 3, 2025
The UK government’s apparent willingness to reduce the Digital Services Tax (DST) rate to placate the Trump administration and potentially secure exemptions from US tariffs represents a concerning development in UK’s tax policy. As recently reported by The...
by Claire Aston | Mar 26, 2025
Photo credit: HM Treasury HMRC’s target for prosecution ‘charging decisions’ to be set 20% above the rates achieved in 2023-24. These rates have collapsed since pre-pandemic. It will be 2029 before HMRC’s target returns to the rate achieved in 2019-20 – a lost decade,...
by Simon Watkins | Feb 12, 2025
Tax evasion cost UK taxpayers £5.5bn in 2022-23, with 81% from small businesses – up from 66% in 2019-20 Prosecutions for tax evasion down 54% since 2018-19 Phoenixism cost the exchequer at least £500 million in 2022-23 HMRC lacks a specific strategy for...
by Simon Watkins | Feb 10, 2025
A National Audit Office report released today focuses on the administrative cost of the tax system. The report finds that HMRC’s costs of administering the tax system increased by 15% (£563 million) between 2019-20 and 2023-24. The report focuses on several...
