Collecting the right tax from wealthy individuals

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry
Opened: 26 Mar 2025 Closed: 22 Sep 2025 Parliament page
In 2023-24, there were 850,000 wealthy individuals in the UK paying personal taxes. Wealthy taxpayers are defined by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), who have a specific team to look into their tax affairs, as people who, in any of the last three years, have incomes of £200,000 or more, … Read more
12 Recommendations
15 Conclusions
1 Report
1 Oral session
3 Letters
1 Event
Activity timeline 6 events
16 Oct
2025
Correspondence
15 Oct
2025
Report published
16 Jul
2025
Report published
7 Jul
2025
Correspondence
12 Jun
2025
Oral evidence
12 Jun
2025
Correspondence
Oral evidence sessions 1 session
12 Jun 2025
View on parliament.uk
Angela MacDonald · HMRC John-Paul Marks · HMRC Jonathan Athow · HMRC Penny Ciniewicz · HMRC Philippa Madelin · HMRC
Title HC No. Published Items Response
40th Report - Collecting the right tax from wealthy individuals HC 827 16 Jul 2025 27 Responded
Recommendations & Conclusions
6 results
Clear
18 Conclusion Deferred
40th Report - Collecting the right…
HMRC's wealthy team has increased compliance yield by preventing non-compliance and targeting complex investigations.
The wealthy team has been generating more of its compliance yield from activities that promote compliance or prevent non-compliance, such as legislative changes, educating agents, and digital prompts within tax software, creating less need for HMRC to open a compliance … Read more
Government Response
The government agrees and states HMRC will publish a plan by Spring 2026 detailing how it will improve compliance by the wealthy population and outlining timelines and outcomes.
HM Treasury
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19 Conclusion Deferred
40th Report - Collecting the right…
Nearly half of wealthy team compliance investigations close with no yielded tax.
A significant proportion of the wealthy team’s compliance investigations close with no yield — 46% in 2023–24, though down from 63% in 2022–23.35 We asked HMRC why nearly half of investigations resulted in no yield at all. HMRC explained that … Read more
Government Response
The government agrees and states that HMRC is currently designing how its investment will be deployed, and will provide more detail to the Committee by Autumn 2026 on how these investments will improve compliance outcomes for the wealthy.
HM Treasury
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21 Conclusion Deferred
40th Report - Collecting the right…
Duration of wealthy individual compliance investigations remains lengthy, particularly for high-value cases.
In 2023–24, HMRC initiated compliance investigations in the majority of instances where it identified a risk of non-compliance.39 The average time it took HMRC to close an investigation increased each year over the period from 2018–19 to 2022–23 to a … Read more
Government Response
The government agrees with the item but states HMRC will report back on it once its assessment of powers and sanctions is completed by Autumn 2026, deferring any specific action until then.
HM Treasury
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22 Conclusion Deferred
40th Report - Collecting the right…
Lengthy complex investigations for wealthy individuals pose a potential flight risk.
We asked HMRC about the risk of people under investigation leaving the country, given that some investigations take so long to complete. HMRC conceded that taking too long to complete its complex investigations could present a flight risk but said … Read more
Government Response
The government agrees and will report back on the recommendation by Autumn 2026, pending completion of HMRC's assessment of its application of powers and sanctions.
HM Treasury
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26 Conclusion Deferred
40th Report - Collecting the right…
HMRC published new estimates for wealthy and offshore tax gaps, totalling £300 million.
HMRC is one of few tax administrations that publishes an annual estimate of the amount of tax revenue lost to wealthy individuals. It estimated this wealthy tax gap to be £1.9 billion in 2022–23, or 0.2% of all taxes owed. … Read more
Government Response
The government agrees with the item and states HMRC is scoping work to better understand the contribution of wealthy individuals to the tax gap, reviewing current estimates, and will provide an update on progress by Autumn 2026.
HM Treasury
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27 Conclusion Deferred
40th Report - Collecting the right…
HMRC's offshore tax gap estimate is partial, understating significant non-compliance risks.
We asked HMRC about its confidence in the accuracy of these estimates, observing specifically that the offshore tax gap seems low given that UK taxpayers held £849 billion in foreign accounts in 2019 and reportedly £570 billion in tax havens. … Read more
Government Response
The government agrees with the item and states HMRC is scoping work to better understand the contribution of wealthy individuals to the tax gap, reviewing current estimates, and will provide an update on progress by Autumn 2026.
HM Treasury
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Government Response AI assessment · 26 of 12 classified
Accepted 18
Acknowledged 2
Deferred 6
Total 12 recs + 15 conclusions
Correspondence 3 letters
16 Oct 2025 To committee Letter from the Chief Executive and First Permanent Secretary of HM Revenue & Customs relating to the Committee’s Fortieth Report of Session 2024–25: Collecting the right tax from wealthy individuals, 22 September 2025
Parliament page
7 Jul 2025 To committee Letter from the Chief Executive and First Permanent Secretary of HM Revenue and Customs relating to the oral evidence session held on 12 June 2025 on Collecting the right tax from wealthy individuals, 26 June 2025
Parliament page
12 Jun 2025 To committee Letter from the Chief Executive and First Permanent Secretary of HM Revenue and Customs relating to Unauthorised Access to HMRC Online Tax Accounts, 10 June 2025
Parliament page