HMRC has published correspondence from Jim Harra, Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive of HMRC, to Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, responding to criticisms in the Committee’s report Tackling the tax gap.
In his letter, Mr Harra raises concern that the report describes HMRC’s presentation of the tax gap statistics as ‘misleading’, and that the accompanying press notice calls on HMRC to be ‘more honest’ in relation to the tax gap. Harra points out that HMRC’s tax gap estimates are official statistics produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics, which assures objectivity and integrity and noting that its methodology has been reviewed by the IMF and Office for Statistics Regulation.
HMRC has published correspondence from Jim Harra, Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive of HMRC, to Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, responding to criticisms in the Committee’s report Tackling the tax gap.
In his letter, Mr Harra raises concern that the report describes HMRC’s presentation of the tax gap statistics as ‘misleading’, and that the accompanying press notice calls on HMRC to be ‘more honest’ in relation to the tax gap. Harra points out that HMRC’s tax gap estimates are official statistics produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics, which assures objectivity and integrity and noting that its methodology has been reviewed by the IMF and Office for Statistics Regulation.
