Missing Self-assessment Tax Payments ‘Worth 10% More than Last Year’
The total amount of money that’s considered due to HMRC but has so far gone unpaid in relation to self-assessment tax returns increased sharply this year as compared to last.
According to newly released figures, there was roughly £7.4 billion left uncollected in relation to personal tax calculations for the year 2017/18, which represents around a 10 per cent increase on the previous year when closer to £6.7 billion wasn’t paid on time.
The figures are generated by measuring the amounts of money HMRC estimates that it ought to receive from self-assessment tax payers against the actual sums it receives for the tax year in question.
Amounts of money not collected but officially considered due in these situations contributes to HMRC’s overall ‘tax gap’.
Across all the different forms of taxation, HMRC’s latest statistics show that it has not been paid a total of £35 billion for the year 2017/18, which is an increase of roughly £2 billion as compared with the year before.
Some experts have suggested that the growing gap between what taxes are due and what amounts are received during a given tax year will represent a significant concern for HMRC and policymakers operating in these contexts.
“Such a sharp increase in underpayment of tax by individuals will undoubtedly prompt a reaction from HRMC,” Jason Collins, head of tax at the law firm Pinsent Masons, is quoted as saying in the Financial Times.
Other interested parties though have said that HMRC is in part responsible for the scale of money not paid in tax through self-assessments because the system involved is so complex and tricky to use.
However, government representatives have indicated that they consider the tax gap as it stands to reflect well on HMRC and its methods of tax gathering.
“The UK’s low tax gap underlines both how the vast majority of people are paying the correct amount of tax, and how effective HM Revenue & Customs has been in its efforts to clamp down on tax evasion and avoidance,” said Jesse Norman, financial secretary to the Treasury in a recent statement.
