Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the tax gap.

At the Budget last autumn, the Government introduced the most ambitious package ever to close the tax gap, ensuring more individuals and businesses pay the taxes they owe and raising £6.5 bn in additional tax revenue per year by 2029-2030. At the Spring Statement, the Government built on this and announced a package of measures to further close the tax gap and raise over £1 billion more.

The announcements since the start of this Government will see 5,500 more compliance officers, alongside 2400 staff in HMRC’s debt management teams to ensure those who can afford to pay their tax debts do so.

The Government is also delivering on its commitments to prosecute more tax fraudsters, to introduce a new HMRC reward scheme for informants, to tackle ‘phoenixism’, and to overhaul HMRC’s approach to offshore tax non-compliance. The Government has also set out its plans to go further in the future to make it easier for taxpayers to pay the right tax through a modern and digital tax system.