Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 13
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 ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
HMRC does not have a specific focus on, or explicit objective for, its performance in tackling tax evasion.33 HMRC explained that it is driven by an overall compliance yield target which is designed to close the overall tax gap, but did not tell us whether it has a specific target to reduce the evasion tax gap.34 We asked HMRC how much tax evasion it is willing to tolerate. HMRC told us that it does not have a level of tolerance, and no tax evasion or non–compliance is acceptable to it. However, HMRC explained that it is inevitable that there will always be some level of non–compliance.35 26 Q 15 27 Q 17 28 Q 18 29 C&AG’s Report, para 9 30 Q 20 31 Autumn Budget 2024 – HC 295 32 Q 20 33 C&AG’s Report, para 9 34 Q 16 35 Q 20 11 Joint working across government
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.