In her Spring Statement the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, laid out initiatives in order to close the tax gap to ensure that more individuals and businesses paid tax that was owed. The package of measures aims to raise over £1bn in additional tax revenue per year by 2029-30. But by the end of December 2024 the amount of unpaid tax liabilities owed to HMRC stood at over £44bn, a figure that has doubled in the last five years.

Building on the measures announced in the autumn Budget, the March statement included more sticks for HMRC. This included another package of proposed reforms to close the tax gap and increase debt repayment and tax revenue.