In its 2020-21 annual report, HMRC reported that it had collected £608.8bn in tax revenues, which is down from £636.7bn collected in 2019-20.

The tax authority generated £30.4bn additional tax through its work tackling avoidance, evasion, and other non-compliance, down 18% from £36.9bn in the previous year.

The yield was affected by the ‘unprecedented economic circumstances caused by Covid-19, and because pandemic restrictions meant HMRC had to reduce its compliance activity’. The tax authority spent 59p for every £1 of tax collected.

The data showed that the revenues primarily consisted of income tax, national insurance contributions and VAT. The tax authority has estimated that the tax gap has increased to 5.3% up from 4.7% last year.