Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 6
40th Report - Collecting the right tax from wealthy individuals
Published 16 Jul 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Collecting the right tax from wealthy individuals All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
It is not sufficiently clear how much tax is paid, and how much tax is avoided by the very wealthy, which restricts HMRC’s ability to reassure the public that it administers the system fairly. Fairness is at the heart of HMRC’s charter. It is important for confidence and trust in HMRC, which has been decreasing in recent years, that the public know the wealthiest are paying their fair share. We welcome the new Permanent Secretary’s commitment to improving trust in the tax system, including examining opportunities to provide greater transparency regarding the 6 amount of tax wealthy taxpayers pay and the contributions of different segments within the wealthy population. HMRC also needs to improve its assessment of the amount of tax that the wealthy avoid paying. HMRC says that the wealthy and offshore tax gaps are particularly difficult to measure. Given these difficulties, and the deficiencies in HMRC’s information on wealth, we are concerned that HMRC is overly confident and optimistic in its estimate that the wealthy tax gap is only £1.9 billion. Its partial estimate of the offshore tax gap, of £0.3 billion, seems far too low, particularly when compared with UK residents holding £849 billion in offshore accounts in
From: Public Accounts Committee, 40th Report - Collecting the right tax from wealthy individuals (HC 827), 16 July 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fortieth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 16 September 2025).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fourtieth report from Session 2024-26
Published 15 October 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it agrees with the Committee's recommendations, setting mostly Autumn 2026 target dates, while declining one specific proposal on penalty targets.
- On the plan to increase yield from wealthy taxpayers, the government agrees and HMRC "will publish its plan in spring 2026" with timelines and outcomes for each objective.
- On data about billionaires and wealth, the government agrees. HMRC will provide the Committee with assurance by autumn 2026 that identified billionaires with a UK tax footprint have an allocated Customer Compliance Manager.
- On penalties for enablers of tax evasion, the government agrees to the recommendation but HMRC "is not minded to set an annual target", because issuing penalties "is dependent on the behaviours shown by taxpayers and enablers in each specific case".
- On the wealthy tax gap, the government agrees, and HMRC "will write to the Committee in Autumn 2026" updating on progress in improving the estimate.