North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson has welcomed the news that unpaid tax is at a record low.
The Treasury announced today that the tax gap, difference between the tax due and that collected by the HMRC, fell to 6% for 2015-2016.
The UK is a world leader on tax compliance, and is the only country to measure and publish tax gaps every year covering both direct and indirect taxes.
In the last seven years, 75 measures have been introduced to reduce tax evasion, avoidance and non-compliance.
These measures have included:
- Cracking down on avoidance by multinationals to ensure companies pay the right amount of tax under UK law
- Introducing tough new criminal offences that make it easier to prosecute both evaders and companies that fail to prevent evasion, as well as significantly increasing penalties
- Introducing a new penalty for those who enable the use of tax avoidance schemes that are later defeated by HMRC
- Investing £800 million in HMRC’s compliance operations, which are expected to bring in an additional £7.2 billion in tax by 2020-2021.
Since their implementation these measures have secured almost £160 billion in additional tax revenue, including £2.8 billion from offshore tax evaders, through action both at home and abroad.
Justin Tomlinson MP said: “It is great to see the Government taking a tough stand against tax avoidance and evasion. I am also delighted that these efforts are paying off and leading to a significant increase in additional tax revenue, which can be used for vital public services.”
