HMRC investigates £14bn of tax ‘at risk’ from avoidance schemes
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is trying to claw back £14 billion of taxes through a series of tax mitigation schemes it is investigating.
According to the National Audit Office (NAO) which today issued a report on HMRC’s progress since 2010, HMRC has estimated there is £14 billion of tax at risk from the tax avoidance schemes it is investigating.
In 2012 the NAO issued a scathing report on HMRC’s approach to tacking tax avoidance. It said while HMR had identified 40,000 unresolved avoidance cases it had not plan on how to work through the backlog of cases or how much the investigations were costing. At the time NAO said tax avoidance scheme promoters were winning ‘what appears ot be a game of cat and mouse with HMRC.’
However, in a report published today the NAO said HMRC had reorganized its business to tackle some of the root causes of marketed tax avoidance.
It said HMRC had sought and received new powers to allow it to disrupt the behaviour of promoters and challenge the users of avoidance schemes more quickly.
Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said: ‘HMRC is among the strongest government departments in terms of managerial competence and its robustness in managing the risks to its essential function of tax collection. It now faces some significant challenges, however, if it is to harness new technology effectively and thereby exploit the data it collects.’
