JumbtFeb 27
Emeritus Prof Christopher May

Finally good news on UK HMRC's tax collection activities; using a more 'hands-on' approach HMRC has raised an extra £16bn in tax from the UK's top 2,000 businesses. This was achieved in 2024/5 through the use of better data analysis & more judicious use fo penalties.

Interestingly HMRC’s large business directorate now has a return on investment of £95 for every £1 spent on staff pay, which is four times higher than what the agency achieves across all taxpayers.

#tax #politics
h/t FT

Feb 27 at 6:25amWeb
Show threadRegFeb 27

@ChrisMayLA6

If only someone had told them earlier that tax avoidance by the wealthy individuals and corporations might reap better returns that chasing benefit fraudsters living hand to mouth.

Show threadChip ButtyFeb 27
@ChrisMayLA6 they are finally going after the big fish?
Show threadEmeritus Prof Christopher MayFeb 27

@otfrom

looks like it

Show threadChip ButtyFeb 27
@ChrisMayLA6 better than when they wanted to use big data to go after market traders (not the investment banking kind)
Show threadChristine Burns MBE 🏳️‍⚧️📚⧖Feb 27
@ChrisMayLA6 This is all in stark contrast to their obsessive push to bring sole traders into the clutches of ‘Making Tax Digital’, with its quarterly returns and attempt to align transactions in those computerised records and bank accounts with Open Banking. Are they really convinced that small traders are so dodgy that they have to be submitted to what is essentially a permanent near-realtime forensic audit?
Show threadEmeritus Prof Christopher MayFeb 27

@christineburns

yes MTD has all the hallmarks of surveillance society....

Show threadJenFeb 27
@ChrisMayLA6 @christineburns I was involved in the first stages of it and it seemed good then.

It was VAT returns and it was purely a way to join up and streamline the existing process - no changes to what was reported or when. Doing it through existing platforms made sense because if you're big enough to be VAT registered you're probably already using a pretty hefty accounts system.

But the roll-out to more tax types seems to be ever more authoritarian and overbearing. The way we did VAT (a small addition to a huge platform) just... Doesn't fit for a micro-business that still has paper books. And quarterly reporting sounds like a lot of extra admin for people who would rather get on with the core work of the business, with no benefits beyond closer snooping.
Show threadMidgePhotoFeb 27
@christineburns @ChrisMayLA6
I assumed someone there, and someone at Companies House, have friends in the commercial closed source software companies.
Show threadClaire McNabFeb 27

@christineburns if successive governments over many decades, had been pursuing an explicit goal of placing obstacles in the path of small businesses, they would have succeeded brilliantly.

@ChrisMayLA6

Show threadMidgePhotoFeb 27
@ChrisMayLA6 that's the directorate the last Tory gov sharply reduced as almost a first act, IIRC.
Show threadrobFeb 27
@ChrisMayLA6 "more judicious use of penalties." Why do I get the feeling that that means they actually applied penalties.
Show threadOwen BeresfordFeb 27
@ChrisMayLA6
I hope this is actual revenue, rather than book revenue.
But filling in for inherited liabilities (and freshly created liabilities TBF) is good.
Show threadJames TweedieFeb 27

@ChrisMayLA6 I hope these stats will encourage them to continue in this direction.

I guess this news will not feature in the Mail, Express or Telegraph.

I just hope that ReformUK Ltd. (Or is it Inc.?) falls under their remit.