The newly appointed CEO of HMRC, John Paul-Marks also set out HMRC’s intentions over the coming years, such as closing the tax gap which now stands at £46.8bn, improving the taxpayers experience, modernising HMRC and supporting the wider government’s economic aims.

Marks also shared his views on how he sees HMRC moving forward as he predicts the non-compliance yield to increase by £11bn by the end of 2029-30. ‘We are determined to see debt fall further as a proportion of total tax receipts in the years ahead,’ said Marks.

Marks added that a key contributing factor to being able to increase this yield so much is £630m of additional investment from the government. One way HMRC intends to combat this is by hiring 5,500 members of staff by 2029-30. So far, 500 of these have been hired, with further recruitment drives expected this year.