Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 15
15
Accepted
HMRC cannot identify the number of billionaires paying UK tax due to legislative limitations.
Recommendation
HMRC could not tell us how many billionaires pay tax in the United Kingdom and explained that income and chargeable gains determine whether someone pays tax, not whether they are a billionaire. UK tax legislation does not require taxpayers to report data on their wealth, only on income and taxable events. HMRC said it therefore does not hold a list of billionaires, or have a legal mechanism for collecting information on taxpayers’ wealth.27 HMRC explained that, before this year when the non-dom regime was removed, a large number of non-domicile billionaires may have been resident in the UK with no taxation payable.28 It expects the removal of the non-dom regime, and the new requirement for these individuals to report their foreign income and gains, will enhance its information on and understanding of the some of the wealthiest individuals.29
Government Response Summary
HMRC will continue to enhance its understanding of billionaires with a UK tax footprint and provide assurance that all billionaires with a UK tax footprint in the wealthy population have an allocated Customer Compliance Manager (CCM). CCMs are senior tax professionals who provide extra scrutiny of individuals who have complex tax affairs and support customers to get their tax right first time. Customers who are newly allocated a CCM in the next update will be informed by summer 2026. Assurance will be provided to the Committee that this has been completed by autumn 2026. It will also use various data sources to estimate the wealth of individuals and understand who the wealthiest individuals are for UK tax purposes.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
3. PAC conclusion: HMRC cannot identify how much tax is paid by UK billionaires, despite the relatively small number of individuals and significant sums of money involved. 3a. PAC recommendation: Alongside its Treasury Minute response, HMRC should write to the Committee with its plans for improving its understanding of the wealth and assets held by the wealthiest individuals, including billionaires. This should include: • work it can implement straightaway on comparing available data on known billionaires, such as the Sunday Times Rich List, with its own records; 3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 31 3.2 The First Permanent Secretary of HMRC has written to the Committee setting out the department’s plans alongside this Treasury Minute response. 3.3 HMRC will continue to enhance its understanding of billionaires with a UK tax footprint. HMRC will provide the Committee with assurance that all billionaires with a UK tax footprint that are identified as part of the department’s annual refresh of the wealthy population have an allocated Customer Compliance Manager (CCM). CCMs are senior tax professionals who provide extra scrutiny of individuals who have complex tax affairs and support customers to get their tax right first time. This refresh takes place annually and customers who are newly allocated a CCM in the next update will be informed by summer 2026. HMRC will provide assurance to the Committee that this has been completed by autumn 2026. 3.4 It is not a requirement in UK law for individuals to routinely report on their total level of wealth or assets held. Whilst there are data limitations, HMRC is able to estimate the wealth of individuals and understand who the wealthiest individuals are for UK tax purposes. To do this HMRC uses a range of data sources, including but not limited to self-assessment returns, data received from overseas tax jurisdictions under automatic exchange of information, third party data and open-source data, including the Sunday Times Rich List.