HMRC have only got 4,000 companies under investigation? That’s one in 700

Posted on June 28 2012

The FT's reported on yesterday's Parliamentary Accounts Committee hearing on HMRC's handling of tax cases, noting:

More than 4,000 companies are currently under investigation by the tax authorities, senior officials at Revenue & Customs revealed as they faced hours of hostile questioning by MPs over corporate tax avoidance.

Jim Harra, director-general of business tax at the Revenue, said the authorities were investigating the tax affairs of “just over 4,000” companies, although he was unable to say how many of these were large corporates.

There are 2.8 million or so companies in the UK.

That means 1 in 700 is under investigation.

Which is ludcrously low.

And remember, up to 500,000 disappear a year, 325,000 in one year because HMRC and Companies House had simply lost touch with them.

And they think 4,000 is a good figure? Pull the other one.

And now you know why we have a tax gap.

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