Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 11
9th Report - Tax evasion in the retail sector
Published 12 Feb 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Tax evasion in the retail sector All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
HMRC told us it has some separate and specific strategic approaches to particular types of non–compliance, such as serious fraud and illicit tobacco, but not for tax evasion.26 It told us that evasion is just one element of the tax gap and it wants to tackle all elements of it, and that its general strategy applies equally to tax evasion and other parts of the tax gap.27 We asked HMRC whether it thought having a strategy for evasion would be a good idea. It told us that it is looking at this issue, explaining that it might consider a specific strategy for a behaviour if that behaviour requires a particular type of response. HMRC told us it needs to deploy its resources across the whole of the tax gap and apply approaches which work for the organisation.28
From: Public Accounts Committee, 9th Report - Tax evasion in the retail sector (HC 355), 12 February 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Ninth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026.
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Ninth report from Session 2024-25
Published 6 May 2025.