Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of HMRC in tackling tax avoidance.

The Government is committed to tackling tax avoidance and evasion to ensure that everyone, no matter who they are, pays the right amount of tax at the right time. Most tax avoidance schemes simply do not work, and those who use them may end up having to pay much more than the tax they tried to avoid, including penalties.

As a result of the action the Government has taken to clamp down on tax avoidance, the estimated avoidance tax gap has shown a steady decline from £4.8 billion (1.1 per cent of total tax liabilities) in 2005-06 to £1.2 billion (0.2 per cent) in 2020-21.