HM Revenue and Customs, the United Kingdom tax authority, recently released the country’s tax gap estimates for 2017-18.

The tax gap for 2017-18 is estimated to be 5.6%, which means that HMRC collected 94.4% of all the tax due under the law in 2017-18. Overall, the tax gap has fallen from 7.2% since 2005-06.

The tax gap is the difference between the amount of tax that should, in theory, be paid to HMRC, and what is actually paid.

Other findings from the ‘Measuring tax gaps’ report include:

  • the duty-only excise tax gap has reduced from 8.4 % in 2005-06, to 5.1% in 2017-18
  • the Corporation Tax gap has reduced from 12.5% in 2005-06, to 8.1% in 2017-18

Read the full ‘Measuring tax gaps 2019 edition’ report.

 

Further reading

ATO Estimates $11 Billion Small Business Income Tax Gap (30 August 2019)

Mind the (Tax) Gap—It’s Bigger Than You Probably Think!, by Richard Highfield (5 February 2019)

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