Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 38
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)
The written evidence received from Dr Edidiong Offiong Bassey also suggests that HMRC is not making the best use of technology. In particular, he indicated there has been limited promotion in the UK of electronic invoicing and electronic fiscal devices which have seen 71 CTS0001 72 Q 48 73 Q 49 74 Qq 45–46 75 Q 12 76 Comptroller and Auditor General, Progress with Making Tax Digital, Session 2022–23, HC 1319, National Audit Office, June 2023, Figure 11 & para 3.36 77 Infrastructure and Projects Authority, Annual Report 2023–24, January 2025, p 37 20 positive results elsewhere.78 Some countries require businesses to use e–invoices for at least some transactions.79 E–invoicing can have a big impact on simplifying communications and reducing non–compliance.80
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.