A UK small company can expect a visit from HMRC – once every 250 years

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I spoke at a meeting for PCS - the union for a majority of staff at H M Revenue & Customs -yesterday.

One person present criticised me for concentrating on the tax gap for large corporations - as I've just done on this blog. As she pointed out the entire staff at HMRC now dedicated to investigating the accounts of more than 500,000 small and medium sized employers in the Uk amounts to just 2,000 people. The result is that on average each can expect to get a visit from HMRC once every 250 years.

No wonder they find significant non-compliance when they do turn up. The chance of being found out is so low the risk of abusing is, in the opinion of far too many, worth taking.

Which is yet more evidence of the existence of a substantial corporate tax gap and the sheer folly of getting rid of more staff at HMRC.


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