Leicester TUSC supporters protesting outside Boots over tax avoidance, photo Leicester SP

Leicester TUSC supporters protesting outside Boots over tax avoidance, photo Leicester SP   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

The think tank Taxwatch estimates as much as £15.2 billion of UK tax lost in 2020 was from fraudulent activity – almost half of uncollected income.

They say this consisted of money lost from criminal attacks (£5.2 billion), evasion (£5.5 billion), hidden economy (£3 billion) and avoidance (£1.5 billion).

However, the think tank said some forms of fraud, such as profit shifting by multinational companies, is not included in HMRC’s calculation, nor is fraud from Covid-19 support schemes. This means the amount of tax lost to fraud will be significantly more than the £15.2 billion identified. An estimate of at least £20 billion would not be “unreasonable”.

Yet the government has increased taxation for ordinary working people to raise just £5.4 billion over three years in a vain attempt to ‘fix’ social care.

Dave Gorton, Chesterfield Socialist Party