HMRC has declared that it has reclaimed in the region of £21 billion from people not paying enough tax in the last tax year. The figure is a record and is the result of an ongoing clampdown by HMRC on people avoiding tax in the UK. It is reported that HMRC secured over a 30% increase from compliance investigations into tax avoidance than the previous tax year.
With the economic problems facing the UK the government is making sure that more people are paying the correct amount of tax than in the past. In similar investigations HMRC recouped £6.9 billon in the tax year ending 5th April 2005 so the increase in the last tax year shows HMRC are successfully claiming back more in unpaid tax.
HMRC in 2010 launched task forces which are targeting particular industries where it feels tax avoidance is commonplace. The industries range from construction to buy to let landlords. The task forces are not always nationwide and often target specific regions of the UK.
Other initiatives to recoup unpaid tax have been introduced, like the use of credit agencies that highlight high risk tax avoiders and pass on the information to HMRC to investigate.
