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Latest HMRC ‘fast facts’ reveal more questions than answers

Like any other citizen I want to see a healthy level of tax receipts coming into HMRC and don’t like the idea of people deliberately not paying the tax which is due. I should therefore have been delighted with the news that HMRC’s compliance yield – the additional amount of tax which comes in as a result of HMRC’s enquiry and intervention work – was at a record £23.9 billion for 2013-14.

So why did I feel bemused rather than elated?

In the first instance, long experience in dealing with government statistics means that I am always cynical about figures which are trumpeted as showing government policy working successfully. But more than that there is something very unsatisfactory about the way that these figures were released. HMRC issued a press release giving the headline figure but without much detail. A few hours later – after the headline writers had the chance to present HMRC’s unchallenged figures to the world at large – a further document HMRC fast facts – Record revenues for the UK – appeared on HMRC’’s website. I opened this expecting a detailed analysis but no: there was even less here than in the initial press release. True, the document contained lots of impressive-looking figures, but there is no consistency. Some of the detail relates back to 2008 while elsewhere figures run on to estimates for as far forward as 2018-19. It really is difficult to get a sense of the overall picture.

So what do we know? The headline is “HMRC secures record tax revenues by cracking down on tax dodgers”. The £23.9 billion includes £8 billion from large business, £1 billion from criminal activity and £2.7 billion from avoidance schemes, but that is less than half of the total. I’ve no idea where the rest of the money comes from. Surely the headline is completely misleading. Fair enough, the £1 billion from criminal activity can be called “tax dodging” but the rest……………?

I am all for HMRC taking a hard line on those who deliberately don’t pay their tax and have no objection to the department publicising its successes. But I would have far more confidence in the messaging if there was a proper backup to what was being said. I have no doubt at all that the £23.9 billion figure is complete and accurate on its own terms: but unless we know what those terms are it is almost meaningless and even self-defeating.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by George Bull .