Small businesses accounted for the largest share of the tax gap in 2018–19.42 The tax gap attributable to small businesses was 43% (£13.4 billion) of the total tax gap in 2018–19 and has remained fairly stable as a percentage of the total tax gap for a number of years. Furthermore, the small business population is constantly growing. HMRC told us that it had grown by about 50% in the last 20 years, and therefore the tax gap is likely to get larger.43 HMRC explained to us that this is why increasingly its strategy is to focus on helping small businesses to get their tax right and make it harder for them to get it wrong. The Department told us that a ‘one-to-one’ approach to ensuring the compliance of all 5.7 million small business is not feasible. It needs to restrict its one-to-one interactions with small businesses to cases of tax evasion, and use more ‘one-to-many’ solutions, such as campaigns targeting specific sectors, for the other aspects of the tax gap.44 We asked HMRC why it had reduced resources allocated to pursuing small businesses for taxes unpaid when small businesses make up the largest share of the tax gap. It told us that its one-to-many activities allow it to reach more businesses with fewer of its staff.45