Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much HMRC has spent in aggregate on legal costs defending claims from taxpayers which reached court in each of the last 10 available financial years.
HMRC incur several different types of legal costs when defending claims in Tribunals and Courts, such as Counsel fees, Court costs and Expert Witness costs. The department’s financial records are not currently set up to differentiate between costs relating to defending claims in Courts or Tribunals and other legal spend.
However, HMRC can provide costs incurred on Counsel fees and Court fees in litigation teams over the last 10 years. Aside from their staff costs, these will cover the vast majority of external legal spend on litigation and related activities.
£000s | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 |
Counsel fees | 6,643 | 7,983 | 6,851 | 7,326 | 8,840 | 8,599 | 7,956 | 7,923 | 8,926 | 8,464 | 7,935 |
Court costs | 90 | 109 | 128 | 130 | 90 | 121 | 175 | 127 | 148 | 155 | 134 |
Expert Witness costs* |
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| 1,030 | 1,107 |
*Data not available for years 2010/11 – 2018/19
The Tax Assurance Commissioner’s Report (part of HMRC’s Annual Report) contains details of the tax protected in litigation by HMRC. Over the last 5 years this has amounted to over £180 billion.