TAX-GAP

Chris Sanger

Temporary relief funded by familiar tax rises and accelerated payments gave this Budget a distinctly Gordon Brown feel, writes Chris Sanger (EY).

Kate Ison

Budget 2026 was billed as providing ‘breathing space’ for businesses and families, but there was little let-up in the Government’s now well-trodden focus on tax compliance and enforcement. Although many of the compliance-related...

Adam Craggs

Predictions that Budget 2026 would be a relatively pedestrian affair proved accurate, with a focus on easing cost of living pressures and few surprises. Labour’s manifesto commitment not to raise headline taxes, coupled with an increasingly...

Heather Self

Heather Self (Blick Rothenberg) analyses HMRC’s latest tax gap figures, and explains why annual comparisons can mislead and why compliance activity alone will not close the gap.

Ray McCann

Small businesses remain HMRC’s principal compliance target, but tackling non-compliance will require more than enforcement, argues Ray McCann.

Sophie Rhind

Elvira Colomer Fatjo

Sophie Rhind and Elvira Colomer Fatjo (Macfarlanes) consider how recent decisions and proposed reforms are reshaping the behavioural penalty landscape.

Jonathan Athow

Jonathan Athow, HMRC’s Director General for Customer Strategy and Tax Design, outlines the department’s digital transformation plans, compliance strategy and modernisation agenda for the year ahead.

Angela Savin

Andrew James

Angela Savin and Andrew James (KPMG Law) explain how HMRC are aiming to reduce the ‘legal interpretation’ tax gap by urging taxpayers to disclose ‘novel or uncertain positions’.