HMRC have published their annual report for 2023/24 which states that the total tax revenues for that year were £843.4bn, the highest on record (and a 3.6% increase on those for 2022/23). The increase is said to reflect the freezing of income tax bands and thresholds, and an increase in the rate of corporation tax.
The amount of money collected by HMRC from its compliance activities rose to £42.8bn in 2023/24, which as accountancy firm BDO noted is a 23% rise on the previous year. ‘The figures show a rise in yield from helping people get their tax right up front and preventing problems, rather than from after-the-event compliance checks’, the firm said. ‘Indeed, there was a significant decline in the number of fraud enquiry cases opened by HMRC during the year [Code of Practice 8 (COP8) and Code of Practice 9 (COP9) cases]. The number of new COP8 cases fell to 212 in 2023/24, down from 674 in the previous year, while the number of new COP9 investigations fell from 417 to 268 during the same period.
Commenting on the new figures, Dawn Register, BDO’s Head of Tax Dispute Resolution, said: ‘While the new and overall numbers of fraud enquiries have declined over the last year, the average tax under consideration per case has risen from £1.6m in 2022/23 to £2.2m in 2023/24, suggesting that HMRC is focusing its efforts on cases where higher amounts are at stake. This might be a sensible strategy from the point of view of filling the government’s coffers, but arguably there needs to be a credible deterrent to all levels of tax evasion.’
The tax gap remained broadly stable in 2022/23 in percentage terms but increased in monetary terms from £38.1bn to £39.2bn. Failing to take reasonable care accounted for 30% of the total tax gap.
The National Audit Office said that customer service ‘continues to be one of HMRC’s biggest challenges’, with performance on the telephone deteriorating again. In 2023/24, 66.4% of callers who attempted to speak to an adviser were answered, compared with 71.1% in 2022/23, against a target of 85%.
The NAO’s Comptroller and Auditor General qualified his audit opinion on HMRC’s Resource Accounts due to the material level of error and fraud he has identified in research and development tax reliefs, personal tax credits and, for the first time, child benefit expenditure.
HMRC have published their annual report for 2023/24 which states that the total tax revenues for that year were £843.4bn, the highest on record (and a 3.6% increase on those for 2022/23). The increase is said to reflect the freezing of income tax bands and thresholds, and an increase in the rate of corporation tax.
The amount of money collected by HMRC from its compliance activities rose to £42.8bn in 2023/24, which as accountancy firm BDO noted is a 23% rise on the previous year. ‘The figures show a rise in yield from helping people get their tax right up front and preventing problems, rather than from after-the-event compliance checks’, the firm said. ‘Indeed, there was a significant decline in the number of fraud enquiry cases opened by HMRC during the year [Code of Practice 8 (COP8) and Code of Practice 9 (COP9) cases]. The number of new COP8 cases fell to 212 in 2023/24, down from 674 in the previous year, while the number of new COP9 investigations fell from 417 to 268 during the same period.
Commenting on the new figures, Dawn Register, BDO’s Head of Tax Dispute Resolution, said: ‘While the new and overall numbers of fraud enquiries have declined over the last year, the average tax under consideration per case has risen from £1.6m in 2022/23 to £2.2m in 2023/24, suggesting that HMRC is focusing its efforts on cases where higher amounts are at stake. This might be a sensible strategy from the point of view of filling the government’s coffers, but arguably there needs to be a credible deterrent to all levels of tax evasion.’
The tax gap remained broadly stable in 2022/23 in percentage terms but increased in monetary terms from £38.1bn to £39.2bn. Failing to take reasonable care accounted for 30% of the total tax gap.
The National Audit Office said that customer service ‘continues to be one of HMRC’s biggest challenges’, with performance on the telephone deteriorating again. In 2023/24, 66.4% of callers who attempted to speak to an adviser were answered, compared with 71.1% in 2022/23, against a target of 85%.
The NAO’s Comptroller and Auditor General qualified his audit opinion on HMRC’s Resource Accounts due to the material level of error and fraud he has identified in research and development tax reliefs, personal tax credits and, for the first time, child benefit expenditure.
