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<p>HMRC has developed a detailed programme to understand the costs of tax reliefs
and expenditures. They publish statistics on tax reliefs annually. HMRC have been
developing the content of those statistics over the past 2 years, in line with Public
Accounts Committee and National Audit Office recommendations. In the latest December
2021 publication, they published cost estimates for 220 out of 300 non-structural
reliefs, up from 111 in Autumn 2019.</p><p> </p><p>HMRC estimates the tax gap, which
is the difference between the amount of tax that should, in theory, be paid to HMRC,
and what is actually paid. The UK tax gap is estimated to be 5.2 per cent of total
theoretical tax liabilities (£34.8 billion) in the tax year 2019-20. Non-compliance
with tax reliefs and expenditures contributes to the overall tax gap estimates. However,
HMRC does not make a disaggregated estimate of the tax gap for tax reliefs and expenditures.
HMRC’s tax gap estimates are official statistics produced in accordance with the UK
Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for Statistics.</p><p> </p><p>HMRC undertakes
a wide range of compliance activity to collect or protect revenue as part of the commitment
to narrow the tax gap. This includes collaborative compliance activity across specialist
teams trained in tackling avoidance, evasion, and criminal attack. They have developed
a professionalism programme with focused training, leading to increased criminal and
civil fraud investigations.</p><p>HMRC already has well established training schemes
for its caseworkers, which include:</p><ul><li>The flagship Tax Specialist Programme,
an intensive 3-year graduate-level programme equipping staff with the skills and knowledge
needed for the most challenging compliance work.</li><li>An 18-month programme for
all other caseworkers managing tax compliance, which incorporates foundation skills
and dedicated training ‘routeways’ for different tax regimes, consolidated by specialist
on-the-job training within compliance teams. HMRC has also recently established a
dedicated Central Training Unit (CTU) to embed compliance professional standards consistently
from Day 1 for new recruits; the CTU is currently training over 3,000 new recruits.</li><li>HMRC’s
Fraud Investigation Service tackles the most serious fraud and organised criminal
attacks against the Exchequer, using both criminal and civil investigations. Those
officers who are authorised to undertake criminal investigations receive accredited
training that reflects the standards expected within the Criminal Justice System.</li></ul>
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