HMRC given £79m to target UK’S wealthiest tax evaders

AUTHORITIES are to crack down on tax evasion by the wealthy in an attempt to claw back hundreds of millions of pounds for the Exchequer.

The Government yesterday announced £79million in additional funding for HMRC as it attempts to raise the tax take by £725m over the next five years. The cash will enable HMRC to assign more staff to serious fraud investigations into and to look into tax avoidance schemes used by the wealthy.

Of the total, £31 million will go towards tackling “compliance risks” in the country’s richest households.

The investment is expected to raise an extra £375million. It is understood taxpayers who use complex corporate structures to reduce their bills will be targeted. A further £48million will be used to investigate serious fraud, and should enable HMRC to collect an additional £350million.

A Treasury spokesman said the measures, announced in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement yesterday, would be used to pursue and prosecute more fraud cases and the additional money allocated should be recouped nine times over. It is expected to bring in £10million in 2023/24, rising steadily to an annual £130million by 2027/28. In documents published by Whitehall yesterday, the Government said: “The Government is investing a further £79m over the next five years to enable HMRC to allocate additional staff to tackle more cases of serious tax fraud and address tax compliance risks among wealthy taxpayers.

“This investment is forecast to bring in £725m of additional tax revenues over the next five years.

“The Government remains committed to ensuring HMRC has sufficient funding to enable it to maintain its compliance performance over time, while continuing to make efficiencies, in this and future spending review periods.”

HMRC’S investigations into the wealthy are led by its elite “offshore, corporate and wealthy” (OCW) unit, part of the Fraud Investigation Service.

It is responsible for tackling the most complex cases, such as those involving international jurisdictions and professionals hired to help people evade tax.

A Treasury spokesman said the new investment was aimed at making sure the very wealthiest were paying their fair share of tax.

The income threshold for individuals to be investigated by the OCW unit is £200,000 per year and above.

It secured 67 years of prison time for tax evaders in 2020, almost triple the previous year’s total, City AM has reported.