Taxation

(asked on 26th September 2014) - View Source

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 Portrait
David Gauke
This question was answered on 14th October 2014

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.

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