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Written Question
Taxation
Tuesday 14th October 2014

Asked by: Margot James (Conservative - Stourbridge)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much the tax gap was in each of the last nine years; and what estimate he has made of the tax gap that was due to tax evasion in each of the last nine years.

Answered by David Gauke

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) publish estimates of the tax gap in Measuring Tax Gaps each year. The 2013 edition presents a time series of tax gaps from 2005-06 to 2011-12, which can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/249537/131010_Measuring_Tax_Gaps_ACCESS_2013.pdf

HMRC has also produced an illustrative breakdown of the tax gap by behaviour, including evasion, for the years 2007-08, 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12. These are not comparable year on year because the data available doesn’t enable estimates to be updated for earlier years. Table 1 below shows the estimates of evasion published in previous HMRC publications for these years.

Table 1: Estimates of evasion previously published

Publication

Year of estimate

Amount (£bn)

Percentage of tax gap in year of estimate

Measuring Tax Gaps 2013

2011-12

5.1

15%

Measuring Tax Gaps 2012

2010-11

4

14%

Measuring Tax Gaps 2011

2009-10

4

12%

Protecting Tax Revenues 2009

2007-08

7

17.5%

Previous editions of ‘Measuring Tax Gaps’ can be accessed at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/measuring-tax-gaps

The HMRC publication ‘Protecting Tax Revenues 2009’, can be accessed at the following link: (http://irscot.inrev.gov.uk/budget10/pbr/00notices/docs/5450_other.pdf)

The 2014 edition of Measuring Tax Gaps, covering estimates for 2012-13, will be published on 16 October.


Written Question
Tax Evasion
Tuesday 14th October 2014

Asked by: Margot James (Conservative - Stourbridge)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much HM Revenue and Customs spent on dealing with tax evasion in each of the last nine years.

Answered by David Gauke

Since 2010, the Government has been determined to support HMRC in tackling tax evasion, and has invested nearly £1 billion in HMRC’s compliance activities.

It is not possible to say how much HMRC have spent on tackling tax evasion in each of the last nine years as HMRC works on a risk basis tackling behaviours. Work on tax evasion is not confined to one directorate within HMRC. Therefore the information is not held in the format requested and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.