Making sense of the cost of tax avoidance

Efforts to measure the extent of tax avoidance are in their infancy. HMRC’s tax gap includes £2.7bn for avoidance but does not include BEPS. The OECD estimates that the global cost of BEPS is US$100–240bn. The OECD’s Action 11 promises new indicators and analysis, but public and policy maker perceptions of the scale of the problem are also shaped by myths and misunderstandings such as Africa losing $38bn a year through transfer pricing or EU countries losing €190bn to BEPS.