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Select Committee · Public Accounts Committee

Tax evasion in the retail sector

Status: Closed Opened: 31 Oct 2024 Closed: 3 Apr 2025 10 recommendations 17 conclusions 1 report

HMRC estimates that £5.5bn of tax was lost due to evasion in 2022-23. This is equivalent to 0.7% of total theoretical tax liabilities, and is most prevalent among small businesses. Of these estimated evasion losses, 81% come from small businesses including companies, partnerships and sole traders. This has risen from 66% of losses in 2019-20. …

Clear

Reports

1 report
Title HC No. Published Items Response
9th Report - Tax evasion in the retail sector HC 355 12 Feb 2025 27 Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

1 item
8 Recommendation 9th Report - Tax evasion in the retail … Accepted in Part

HMRC significantly underestimated additional tax revenue from online marketplace VAT liability legislation.

In January 2021 government introduced legislation making online marketplaces liable for VAT from overseas sellers, resulting in £1.5 billion of additional tax a year. This is five times greater than HMRC estimated at the time.15 We asked HMRC why this was, and it explained that the volume of online sales …

Government response. HMRC will analyze the difference between original and current costings of the 2021 Online Marketplace Liability policy, and update its estimate of tax lost from VAT non-compliance, providing findings when sufficiently robust, with an update in September 2025 and a …
HM Treasury

Oral evidence sessions

1 session
Date Witnesses
16 Dec 2024 Dean Beale · The Insolvency Service, Louise Smyth · Companies House, Penny Ciniewicz · HMRC, Sir Jim Harra · HMRC View ↗

Correspondence

4 letters
DateDirectionTitle
27 Jan 2025 To cttee Letter from the Chief Executive and First Permanent Secretary of HM Revenue and…
17 Dec 2024 From cttee Letter to the First Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive of HM Revenue and C…
17 Dec 2024 To cttee Letter from the Registrar of Companies at Companies House relating to the brief…
16 Dec 2024 From cttee Letter to the Chief Executive and Registrar of Companies at Companies House rel…