The precise design and scope of any Overnight Visitor Levy are still under consideration following the public consultation. The Government will publish its formal response to the consultation in due course.

Decisions on whether to introduce a levy, and on specific local proposals, will be for Mayors and local leaders, subject to local consultation. The detailed scope, including any exemptions, administrative arrangements, use of revenues and other aspects of policy design will be set out, where relevant, in future legislation.

The precise design and scope of any Overnight Visitor Levy are still under consideration following the public consultation. The Government will publish its formal response to the consultation in due course.

Decisions on whether to introduce a levy, and on specific local proposals, will be for Mayors and local leaders, subject to local consultation. The detailed scope, including any exemptions, administrative arrangements, use of revenues and other aspects of policy design will be set out, where relevant, in future legislation.

HMRC use third-party data to help simplify tax administration. Specifically in relation to calculating tax due, the key sources of third-party data are:

o Department for Work and Pensions – pension income and benefit information

o Bank and building societies– savings interest information

o Employers – payroll data about payments to employees

In addition, HMRC also make use of third-party data in our compliance activities to ensure customers pay the right amount of income tax. To protect the operational integrity of these activities we do not disclose all of our data sources, but at a high level they include card sales data and other data that provides evidence of undeclared taxable income.

The additional investment in HMRC debt management staff, as announced at Autumn Budget 2024, is estimated to have delivered £840 million in additional tax revenue in 2025-26. This exceeds the original forecast by approximately £140 million.

As announced at Autumn Budget 2024 and Spring Statement 2025, we will also recruit an additional 5,500 compliance staff by March 2030, consisting of around c.1,100 extra recruits each year between March 2025 and March 2030. These additional caseworkers are currently forecast to deliver around £10.7 billion of additional compliance yield over the next 5 years to 2030-31, with £145 million of that in 2025-26.

HMRC undertakes regular Payment Innovation landscape reviews, looking at the UK and international payment ecosystems, emerging payment technologies, and innovations relevant to tax administration and payment systems integration. This includes working with the payments sector and tracking usage of payment types.

HMRC has developed and published its Payment Strategy which sets out how it will keep pace with new and emerging technologies for payments.

If a company or a group's annual profits exceed £1.5 million, they will be classed as ‘large’ and will be required to pay their Corporation Tax in quarterly instalments. This long-standing regime ensures that larger companies pay their Corporation Tax bill closer to the point at which they make a profit, which is in line with other G7 countries.

Companies must self-assess whether they are in the regime and pay accordingly. Where liabilities may be difficult to predict, including from capital gains, companies should make their best estimate of instalment payments based on the information available at the time. Payments can be adjusted up or down as the final liability becomes clearer, and if they prove to be excessive a repayment can be claimed.

As always for late paid tax, interest is charged to reflect the time value of money. Recognising the estimated nature of the instalments, special rates of interest apply which charge less for late payment, and pay more for overpayment, than the normal rates.

The Government keeps the impact of the quarterly instalment payment regime, including associated interest rules, under review.

HMRC is committed to making sure that individuals and businesses who can pay, do so on time. Since Autumn Budget 2024, HMRC has received £782 million of investment in its debt collection activities, which will help it to collect over £12 billion more debt by the end of 2030-31.

HMRC published an update to its tax debt strategy at Budget 2025, outlining how the recent investment is helping to close the tax gap and reduce tax debt year-on-year as a percentage of receipts. The tax debt balance as a percentage of receipts fell from 5.2% in 2023-24 to 5% in 2024-25, and HMRC is aiming for this to decrease to between 3% and 4% by 2029-30.

HMRC has effective processes in place to collect debt including telephone and letter campaigns, strategic partnerships with private sector debt collection agencies, and where necessary, enforcement action. For customers who need financial support, it offers flexible Time to Pay payment plans which collect debt in affordable and sustainable instalments.

HMRC publishes quarterly performance updates on GOV.UK. You can find this here:

HMRC is committed to making sure that individuals and businesses who can pay, do so on time. Since Autumn Budget 2024, HMRC has received £782 million of investment in its debt collection activities, which will help it to collect over £12 billion more debt by the end of 2030-31.

HMRC published an update to its tax debt strategy at Budget 2025, outlining how the recent investment is helping to close the tax gap and reduce tax debt year-on-year as a percentage of receipts. The tax debt balance as a percentage of receipts fell from 5.2% in 2023-24 to 5% in 2024-25, and HMRC is aiming for this to decrease to between 3% and 4% by 2029-30.

HMRC has effective processes in place to collect debt including telephone and letter campaigns, strategic partnerships with private sector debt collection agencies, and where necessary, enforcement action. For customers who need financial support, it offers flexible Time to Pay payment plans which collect debt in affordable and sustainable instalments.

HMRC publishes quarterly performance updates on GOV.UK. You can find this here:

The figure for the cost of collecting Inheritance Tax (pence per pound collected) for 2024/25 is 0.78. This means as a proportion of total Inheritance Tax revenue, the administrative cost of collecting Inheritance Tax was 0.78% in that year.

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).

HMRC is committed to making sure that individuals and businesses who can pay, do so on time. Autumn Budget 2024 and Spring Statement 2025 allocated a further £629 million to HMRC’s debt collection activities, which will help it to collect over £11 billion more debt by the end of 2029-30. HMRC announced in its Transformation Roadmap that it will provide more detail by the end of 2025 on how it will reduce debt year on year as a percentage of receipts.

HMRC has effective processes in place to collect outstanding payments including telephone and letter campaigns, strategic partnerships with private sector debt collection agencies, and where necessary, enforcement action. For customers who need financial support, it offers flexible Time to Pay payment plans which collect debt in affordable and sustainable instalments.

HMRC continually reviews and refines its approach to ensure that its interventions remain effective and provide appropriate support to customers.

HMRC calculate annually the cost to collect £1 of VAT. In 2024-25, it cost 0.58 pence, i.e. less than one penny, to collect £1 of VAT on average. This ratio has been broadly stable over recent years.