UK tax evasion up to £42billion a year
11 04 08 - 06:37 After three years blocking a freedom of information request from Private Eye, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has finally revealed how much it reckons is lost every year to the nation's tax dodgers.The attempt to bury bad news - "managing information", admitted HMRC's press secretary - can be explained by the figures, prepared in 2005. Up to £42bn - even more than the government's budget defecit and enough to eradicate UK child poverty ten times over - could be going begging every year through tax evasion and (legal) avoidance, of which just £4bn is recovered by tax inspectors. There is also £12bn lost to VAT fiddles every year.
Quote from the latest copy of Private Eye magazine( 4 -17 April)
Can you absorb the enormity of that?
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