HMRC has hit back at criticism from the Public Accounts Committee's (PAC) report on its Annual Report & Accounts 2012-13, saying it is based on 'selective and misleading use of figures'.

The tax authority says it 'strongly disputes' PAC's conclusions that HMRC is not doing enough to close the tax gap and is failing to tackle tax evasion by multinationals, preferring to focus on smaller companies.

In a statement, HMRC said: 'HMRC seeks to collect the tax that is due from all taxpayers, so that everyone pays their fair share in accordance with the tax laws passed by parliament. We have secured more than £50bn of additional tax from our compliance work since 2010, including £23bn from large businesses. We have carried out 2,345 prosecutions for tax evasion in the last three years, including of high-profile accountants and lawyers, have halved the number of disclosed tax avoidance schemes and have protected more than £2.4bn from marketed tax avoidance schemes this year alone.'

HMRC takes issue with PAC's view of the size of the tax gap, saying its methodology for calculating the proportion of taxes that are due but which are not collected is 'robust and has been endorsed by the IMF.'

Using this approach, HMRC says its figures show the tax gap has fallen from 8.3% in 2005/06 to 7% in 2011/12, and argues that if it had remained at the level it was at seven years ago, the department would be collecting £7bn less each year. The PAC report did not consider the percentage change but looked at the tax gap as having increased in real terms to £35bn last year.

'Contrary to what the PAC report says, the published tax gap does include a measure of the tax lost from avoidance, as well as evasion, but it can only measure non-compliance with existing tax law - it cannot estimate how much tax might be due if tax laws were different,' HMRC's statement said.

Countering PAC's suggestion that it was too soft on tackling multinational companies about their tax arrangements, HMRC said: 'We do not hesitate to take large businesses to court if necessary to secure the tax they owe and would consider prosecution in any case where we suspect that we have been misled or information had been withheld from us. We secured eight court wins against large businesses in the first half of this year alone, protecting over £1bn of tax from avoidance.'

HMRC also refuted PAC's claims that it was as not doing enough to anticipate how changes in tax rules designed to make the UK more attractive to business could also enable international corporations to avoid tax, pointing out that 'HMRC can only bring in the tax that is due under the law and we cannot collect what is not legally due, however much the Committee might want us to.'

However, HMRC's statement did not specifically address one of PAC's key criticisms, which was its inability to account for a significant shortfall between the £3.12bn HMRC originally said it expected to collect from UK holders of Swiss bank accounts and the actual levels of payment which were just £440m.

HMRC concluded by stating: 'The Committee's unjustified criticism is not a fair reflection of the dedication of our 65,000 staff, whose work has helped the UK achieve one of the best levels of tax compliance in the world. And it risks undermining the confidence that the compliant majority of UK taxpayers have in the excellent work they do.'