Tax dodging

Fact checks focused on tax evasion, avoidance and offshore accounts

8 April 2022

Why Rishi Sunak’s wife’s tax status isn’t a direct consequence of her citizenship

Ms Murty uses her non-domiciled status to not pay UK tax on foreign income, but this is an active choice, and not a direct consequence of her Indian citizenship.

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24 August 2020

Comparing tax dodging and benefits for people seeking asylum

MP Zarah Sultana claimed that the super-rich and large corporations dodge £90 billion in tax every year. This is based on an estimate for the tax gap which is much higher than the official figure.

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30 September 2019

Claim Brexit is about concealing offshore accounts is baseless

New EU tax laws aim to stop tax avoidance practices by companies. They do not aim to make owners of offshore bank accounts “come clean”.

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31 July 2019

There’s no easy way to compare benefit and tax fraud.

This graphic comparing benefit fraud and tax fraud is wrong. It’s difficult to compare DWP and HMRC, and most of the numbers quoted are incorrect.

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10 July 2018

Do benefit fraud investigators outnumber super-rich tax inspectors 8:1?

HMRC employs around 1,000 staff to work with and investigate the tax affairs of the affluent and super-rich. DWP employs around 4,000 staff in its benefit fraud team.

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9 November 2017

Tax dodging: how big is the problem?

The government says the tax gap is £34 billion. Other estimates go as high as £122 billion.

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2 November 2017

How much has the government recouped from tax evasion and avoidance?

Last year HMRC estimates it made £29 billion extra as a result of its compliance activities.

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2 November 2017

Are the super-rich paying less income tax?

The amount of income tax collected from the wealthiest in 2009 was unusual as people sought to avoid a tax rise in 2010.

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31 March 2017

Does the Treasury lose £40 billion each year to the super-rich?

There’s much uncertainty here, but that claim isn’t supported by HMRC’s own estimates. The emphasis should be on the word ‘estimates’.

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22 March 2017

Tax cuts: corporation tax, inheritance, capital gains and the bank levy

All four have had some cuts... but only two have been cut overall.

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