Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 14
23rd Report - The cost of the tax system
Published 30 Apr 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee The cost of the tax system All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
In July 2020 HMRC and HM Treasury published the Tax Administration Strategy (the Strategy) which set out how they would build a modern, trusted tax administration system by 2030.23 As part of the Strategy they wanted to gradually increase the trust of taxpayers in HMRC. Trust is seen as vital for a tax authority to effectively discharge its role, including the willingness of taxpayers to pay the correct amount of tax on time.24 But since the Strategy was launched, trust in HMRC has declined for all taxpayer groups other than medium–sized business. 18 C&AG’s Report, para 7 19 Qq 27, 30 20 Qq 28–29 21 Q 15 22 Qq 25, 33 23 HMRC and HM Treasury, Tax administration strategy, 21 July 2020 24 C&AG’s Report, para 3.3 11 • For large businesses, trust in HMRC fell from 86% in 2020 to 70% in
From: Public Accounts Committee, 23rd Report - The cost of the tax system (HC 645), 30 April 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 18 September 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 recommendation" on each of the report's recommendations, and reports that several are already implemented while others carry target dates.
- On simplification, the government will publish HMRC's Transformation Roadmap in summer 2025, which "will include the metrics HMRC will use to report progress".
- On trust, the government agrees with both recommendations and describes them as "Recommendation implemented", citing annual customer surveys, complaints data and focus groups.
- On compliance productivity, it says HMRC "will recruit an additional 5,500 compliance staff by March 2030", alongside other measures to close the tax gap.
- On legacy IT, HMRC "will write to the Committee" on its remediation plans, forecast cost and expected savings, with a target implementation date of September 2025.