Recommendation 11

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