Response to NAO report ‘collecting the right tax from wealthy individuals’

Tax Justice UK comment on the National Audit Office report Collecting the right tax from wealthy individuals.

Caitlin Boswell, Head of Advocacy and Policy at Tax Justice UK said:

“Despite increasing tax revenue from the ultra-rich and Britain’s wealthiest, massive problems remain. The gap between what tax is paid and what is owed among the richest is growing, and the scale of it is likely far greater than what HMRC can estimate. That’s because of things like secret offshore tax havens used to stash assets that the tax authority has no oversight of; not least helped by tax agents with knowledge of how to exploit loopholes in the system handling the affairs of almost three quarters of the richest taxpayers.

“All the while, the vast majority of taxes paid by the ultra-rich are on their income from work, leaving their dramatically increasing income from wealth yielding comparatively little for the government to invest in public services. As a first step, HMRC must reinstate the ultra-wealthy unit in order to really be able to assess and tackle the extent of tax abuse among the super-rich. But until we tax income from wealth at the same rate as income from work, the super-wealthy will be able to continue exploiting the system and paying relatively lower rates of tax.”