Oral Answers to Questions

Anas Sarwar Excerpts

Tuesday 6th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gauke]

There are times when taxpayers engage in aggressive avoidance and we put a stop to it, as we did last week. However, the offsetting of losses is not novel—it is a long-standing element of the tax system—and, although of course we keep all such matters under review, the legitimate use of losses does not necessarily count as aggressive avoidance.

[Anas Sarwar (Glasgow Central) (Lab)]

Given the Government’s attempts to cut the deficit, it would make sense to clamp down on tax evasion, so why are they cutting 10,000 staff at HMRC?

[Mr Gauke]

We are cutting down on tax evasion. Whereas under the previous Government tax evasion coverage was reduced—the number of staff dealing with tax evasion was reduced—it can be seen that the number of people working on tax evasion in HMRC is now increasing.