40th Report - Collecting the right tax from wealthy individuals
Select Committee
Public Accounts Committee
HC 827
16 July 2025
Government response
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fourtieth report from Session 2024-26 · published 15 Oct 2025
Recommendations & Conclusions
6 results
18
Conclusion
Deferred
HMRC's wealthy team has increased compliance yield by preventing non-compliance and targeting complex investigations.
Conclusion
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 …
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Government Response Summary
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
Nearly half of wealthy team compliance investigations close with no yielded tax.
Conclusion
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 …
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Government Response Summary
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
Duration of wealthy individual compliance investigations remains lengthy, particularly for high-value cases.
Conclusion
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 …
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Government Response Summary
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
Lengthy complex investigations for wealthy individuals pose a potential flight risk.
Conclusion
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 …
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Government Response Summary
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
HMRC published new estimates for wealthy and offshore tax gaps, totalling £300 million.
Conclusion
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. …
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Government Response Summary
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
HMRC's offshore tax gap estimate is partial, understating significant non-compliance risks.
Conclusion
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. …
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Government Response Summary
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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