{"id":15629,"date":"2012-05-18T15:34:28","date_gmt":"2012-05-18T14:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=15629"},"modified":"2012-05-18T15:36:01","modified_gmt":"2012-05-18T14:36:01","slug":"how-can-hmrc-defend-a-figure-for-the-tax-gap-that-says-total-income-tax-avoidance-is-just-1-5-billion-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2012\/05\/18\/how-can-hmrc-defend-a-figure-for-the-tax-gap-that-says-total-income-tax-avoidance-is-just-1-5-billion-is\/","title":{"rendered":"I do hope HMRC are called before parliament to explain their misstatement of the tax avoidance gap"},"content":{"rendered":"

HMRC's attack on my work on the tax gap <\/a>is almost amusing in some ways.<\/p>\n

Amongst their claims is one that says total tax avoidance in 2009-10 was just \u00a35 billion.<\/p>\n

And yet when the 50p tax rate was introduced they reckoned<\/a>\u00a0(page 39) there was more than \u00a36 billion of tax\u00a0avoidance in 2009-10 as a result of shifting in the timing of dividends for that one\u00a0reason\u00a0alone.<\/p>\n

So, just to make this clear, \u00a0in 2009-10, the year for which their latest tax gap estimate for tax\u00a0avoidance\u00a0was prepared<\/a>, they said in September 2011 there was just \u00a35 billion of tax avoidance in all (making up part of the\u00a0total\u00a0tax gap in their estimate of \u00a335 billion) and yet by March 2012 they were admitting tax avoidance for just one reason in that year exceeded \u00a36 billion. And yet despite that they are still telling parliament their estimate of the tax gap is better than mine.<\/p>\n

Now that's an\u00a0interesting\u00a0idea, not least\u00a0because\u00a0it would require there to be negative tax avoidance for all\u00a0other\u00a0purposes and taxes if their claim was to be true.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, and as is glaringly obvious, their claim is wildly inaccurate.<\/p>\n

Candidly, how they have the nerve to present such\u00a0misinformation\u00a0is hard to determine. I hope they get called in to defend such wilful misrepresentations to Parliament,\u00a0because\u00a0they should be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HMRC’s attack on my work on the tax gap is almost amusing in some ways. Amongst their claims is one that says total tax avoidance
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