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Written question asked by Neil Duncan-Jordan (Independent (affiliation)) on Monday, 27 October 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 29 October 2025. It was answered by Dan Tomlinson (Labour) on Monday, 3 November 2025 on behalf of the Treasury.

Tax Collection

Question

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an estimate of the value of uncollected tax in each of the last five financial years.

Answer

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) estimates the size of the tax gap, which is the difference between the amount of tax that should, in theory, be paid to HMRC, and what is actually paid. The tax gap statistics and details of the estimate methodologies are published annually and are available at: Measuring tax gaps 2025 edition: tax gap estimates for 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UK.

Table 1.3 of the online tables shows the tax gap time series between tax years 2005 to 2006 and 2023 to 2024 in percentage and absolute value terms. In the tax year 2023 to 2024, the tax gap was 5.3% of total theoretical tax liabilities, or £46.8 billion in absolute terms. The tax gap was 5.6% (£46.4 billion) in 2022 to 2023, 5.6% (£41.8 billion) in 2021 to 2022, 5.3% (£34.2 billion) in 2020 to 2021, and 5.8% (£38.5 billion) in 2019 to 2020. The online tables are available at: Measuring tax gaps tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
85667
Session
2024-26
Subjects
Tax collection
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk