Quantcast
Menu
Save, make, understand money

Household Bills

Third of UK ‘tax gap’ due to evasion or avoidance

Tahmina Mannan
Written By:
Tahmina Mannan
Posted:
Updated:
18/10/2012

A third of ‘tax-gap’ in the UK is solely down to tax avoidance and evasion, says HMRC.

Nearlya third of the UK ‘tax gap’ – the difference between what is owed to Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and what is collected – is due to tax avoidance or evasion, according to the latest estimates.

Figures for 2010/11 have put the tax gap at £32bn, £1bn higher than that recorded in 2009/10 and 6.7% of total liabilities, HMRC said.

A total of £9bn of this gap relates to tax avoidance and evasion.

HMRC said tax is not collected for a number of reasons, including evasion and avoidance, as well as customer error, the hidden economy and criminal attacks.

HMRC says tax avoidance “is not the same as legitimate tax planning”.


Share: