Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Forty-Ninth Report - Managing tax compliance following the pandemic
Public Accounts Committee
HC 739
Published 3 May 2023
Recommendations
2
Accepted
Develop better understanding of deterrent effect of compliance work and monitor prosecution revenue benefits.
Recommendation
HMRC does not expect to prosecute as many people for tax evasion as it did before the pandemic. HMRC prosecuted far fewer cases during the pandemic than before 2020. It has said publicly that no one will escape prosecution and …
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Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation and commits to commencing new work in the 2023-24 financial year to understand the deterrent effect of criminal investigations resulting in prosecutions, with a target implementation date of June 2024.
HM Treasury
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4
Accepted
Ensure HMRC provides sufficient, tailored support to all taxpayers wanting to pay their taxes.
Recommendation
HMRC is not doing enough to help those who want to pay their taxes correctly. Taxpayers who want to pay their tax sometimes need help to get it right, and both the pandemic and the economic situation since have put …
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Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation, stating it provides flexible repayment practices and has secured new funding to improve the online Time to Pay service functionality. It also details that 500 additional debt management staff funded in 2022 are now in place and £20 million has been provided for private debt collection agencies.
HM Treasury
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5
Accepted
Develop robust estimates of compliance yield errors and ensure correction and compensation for overcharged taxpayers.
Recommendation
We are concerned that HMRC may be overstating the impact of its compliance work, and that it is overcharging some taxpayers. HMRC tests 400 of its completed compliance cases each year. In 2021–22, 80 of these cases had errors in …
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Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation, committing to design a new sampling approach by June 2024 to develop statistically robust estimates of compliance yield error and the extent of taxpayer overcharging. They also clarify existing mechanisms for addressing overcharges, including complaints, reviews, reimbursement of costs, and payment of interest on overpayments.
HM Treasury
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Conclusions (11)
9
Conclusion
Accepted
Over the two pandemic years, HMRC completed around 1,000 fewer prosecutions for tax-related offences than before the pandemic. In 2020–21 and 2021–22, it concluded just 163 and 236 prosecutions respectively, compared with around 700 a year in the two years before the pandemic.14 HMRC told us that court closures and …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the committee's observation, stating that tax crime prosecutions are expected to increase with a focus on high-harm cases and HMRC will commence new work in 2023-24 to understand the deterrent effect of its criminal investigations by June 2024.
10
Conclusion
Accepted
However, HMRC also told us that it was already reducing numbers of prosecutions before the pandemic, and that is not planning on restoring the number of prosecutions to pre-pandemic levels, even with the backlog. Before the pandemic, the number of prosecutions had reduced from around 900 in 2017–18 to around …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and states that tax crime prosecutions are expected to increase in future years, focusing on the highest-harm and most serious cases. HMRC will also commence new work in the 2023-24 financial year to understand the deterrent effect of its criminal investigations by June 2024.
11
Conclusion
Accepted
We asked whether such significant reductions in prosecutions risks weakening the deterrent effect of HMRC’s work, which could lead to greater levels of non-compliance. HMRC told us that while it wants to see serious tax crimes addressed in the most effective way, it is not seriously concerned that the reduction …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the committee's observation, stating that tax crime prosecutions are expected to increase and HMRC will commence new work in 2023-24 to understand the deterrent effect of its criminal investigations, with a target implementation date of June 2024.
15
Conclusion
Accepted
HMRC told us that the pandemic created difficulties for taxpayers, and that the economic situation since has continued to put pressure on them.25 HMRC’s strategy in recent years has increasingly focused on preventing non-compliance occurring in the first place, including by helping taxpayers get their tax affairs right.26
Government Response Summary
The government will continue flexible repayment practices and enhance the online 'Time to Pay' service with Spring Budget 2023 funding. This aligns with HMRC's strategy to help taxpayers manage their affairs and prevent non-compliance, supported by additional staff and private debt collection agency funding.
16
Conclusion
Accepted
Following our previous recommendations on HMRC’s debt management practices during and after the pandemic, HMRC has made changes to its approach aimed at supporting people and businesses to pay what they owe and recovering debts more quickly. This includes tailoring its approach to each taxpayer’s circumstances and ability to pay, …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the committee's welcomed observation, confirming that flexible repayment practices are in place, online Time to Pay services are being improved, 500 debt management staff have been recruited, and additional funds will be provided for private sector debt collection.
17
Conclusion
Accepted
However, HMRC acknowledged that, despite these improvements, its initial expectation that debt levels would reduce has not been borne out in practice. This is because of ongoing economic pressures affecting taxpayers, particularly small businesses. Instead, debt levels have risen again – from £39.4 billion in April 2022 to £45.7 billion …
Government Response Summary
The government has secured Spring Budget 2023 funding for online 'Time to Pay' service improvements and Spring Statement 2022 funding for 500 additional debt management staff. An additional £20 million will be provided in 2023-24 and 2024-25 to utilize private sector debt collection agencies to address rising debt levels.
18
Conclusion
Accepted
HMRC can also support taxpayers through its customer service functions, by answering questions or otherwise providing helpful information in a timely way. However, its customer services have also been struggling with high call volumes, particularly at certain times of year such as the January deadline for filing self-assessment returns.29 We …
Government Response Summary
The government will continue to offer flexible repayment practices, improve the online 'Time to Pay' service with Spring Budget 2023 funding, and use £20 million in 2023-24 and 2024-25 for private debt collection agencies. These measures aim to enhance support for taxpayers struggling with tax affairs.
19
Conclusion
Accepted
HMRC’s compliance yield estimate is an important measure of the impact of its compliance work. A good understanding of this performance is essential for identifying whether HMRC has the overall resources it needs, as well as whether it is deploying these resources to where they are most effective.32
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the importance of accurate yield measurement and will design a new sampling approach by June 2024 to allow for extrapolation of errors from TSAP reviews to the annual estimate of compliance yield. This will include considering options like aligning sampling to value profiles and developing a mechanism to estimate the impact of official error on taxpayers.
20
Conclusion
Accepted
HMRC’s quality assurance arrangements involve testing 400 of its completed compliance cases each year. In 2021–22, 80 of these cases had errors in the compliance yield that HMRC had recorded. These errors included both overstated and understated figures, and occurred for a range of reasons including data input mistakes, incorrect …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and will design a new sampling approach by June 2024 to allow for extrapolation of errors from TSAP reviews to the annual estimate of compliance yield. This will help address issues identified in quality assurance and enable estimation of official error impact on taxpayers.
21
Conclusion
Accepted
HMRC’s 2021–22 testing also found seven cases where taxpayers had been overcharged following the completion of a compliance enquiry, by a total of £32 million. Almost of all of this was a single large overcharge, which HMRC identified before any payment was taken.34 However, most of the smaller overcharges were …
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the observation, stating existing controls are in place to ensure accurate tax positions, including quality assurance, appeal processes, and complaint mechanisms, with a commitment to pay interest on overpayments by March 2024.
22
Conclusion
Accepted
HMRC does not know to what extent the errors identified are representative of compliance yield as a whole being overstated. HMRC also cannot estimate how many taxpayers it is overcharging following compliance enquiries, or by how much. HMRC explained that it designed its sampling process to examine quality in all …
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation and commits to designing a new sampling approach by June 2024 that allows for extrapolation of errors from reviewed cases to the annual compliance yield estimate. Once established, HMRC will develop a mechanism to estimate the impact of official error on taxpayers.