How Brit’s Tax Gap Plan Might Slip Into the “Almost” Realm
So the Chancellor just dropped the grand idea that we’ll haul in an extra £6.5 billion each year by “closing the tax gap.” Pretty neat, right? Cue the chorus of skepticism.
Staffing: 200 New Stylists for Tax Compliance
- Only 200 fresh HMRC hires are slated for November training.
- Training slogs takes months—so the big money won’t drop out of school any time soon.
- And if you remember the last decade, HMRC staff quality didn’t exactly rise to Apollo‑grade standards.
Bottom line: we probably need a veritable training boot camp if the staff are to match the brilliance of the tax titans of yore.
Tech‑It‑Up? Gone But Not Forgotten
Modernising IT and data? Sounds like the Oxford Knitting Club’s idea of an upgrade. Think MTD (Making Tax Digital) as an eternal landmine or those dreadful online disclosure forms that feel like a bureaucratic Rube Goldberg machine.
Chasing “Promoters” – A Sisyphean Task
- HMRC’s got a power‑play to hunt down promoters, but they’re excellent at disappearing.
- Offshore moves, smile‑shapes, and shapes that shift faster than a cartoon character’s lip sync.
Small Businesses: The Big Tax Gap Breeders
Raw data from HMRC shows 60 % of the tax gap comes from those local businesses that swindle cash‑in‑hand tribute (dodging corporation tax, VAT, and paying employers under the table). Ms Reeves has yet to hand us a master plan for catching these candy‑cane bohemians.
Even adding more compliance officers—who, by the way,’ll need a full beginner’s curriculum—probably won’t hit the ground running with the hidden cash registers these folks keep.
Designing Out Non‑Compliance: The Noble Dream
Design is great, but what about giving taxpayers a hand to actually sneak into the system properly? A decent helpline that’s more than a line‑up of polite people is essential.
Reality Check: 15 Years of Missed Targets
Look back: the past 15 years of “big drives” to capture extra tax revenue largely left the Chancellor under the table.
So there’s a good chance the figure of £6.5 billion is a slightly> ambitious fantasy—especially if you compare it to the dwarves that actually fell short in the past.
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