The £48bn small business tax gap: How better collection could raise £15bn without raising rates
By
Dan Neidle
Summary
The article examines the UK's small business corporation tax gap — an estimated £30bn to £48bn in uncollected tax each year — which is the country's largest and least discussed tax problem. It highlights how HMRC devotes minimal resources to auditing small businesses (only 330 random checks annually) despite making significant progress on large business tax compliance in the 2000s. The piece argues that Andy Burnham could raise £15bn simply by improving tax collection from small businesses rather than raising tax rates, and explores the political and administrative reasons why this issue remains neglected.
Source
bskyThe £48bn small business tax gap: How better collection could raise £15bn without raising ratestaxpolicy.org.ukKey quotes
· 3 pulledThere's between £30bn and £48bn missing from each year's small business tax bills. It's been getting worse – and nobody knows why.
There's no other issue where so much money is at stake but so little time is spent discussing it.
HMRC made spectacular progress on the large business corporation tax gap in the 2000s. If they made the same progress on the small business corporation tax gap...
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