HMRC’s hard turn on tax enforcement

13 May 2026

Soaring number of winding up petitions after HMRC gained secondary preferential creditor status makes it more difficult to negotiate time to pay agreements to settle tax debts, warn Linton Bloomberg, partner, and Josh Beasley, trainee solicitor, at Reed Smith

On the surface there appear to be some green shoots in the insolvency landscape. In England and Wales there were 23,938 insolvencies last year, marginally below 2024 and comfortably below the peak of 25,164 in 2023. Yet there is one trend emerging that is increasingly causing concern across boardrooms and advisers - the surge in HMRC launching winding up petitions.

Between 2021 and 2025, HMRC winding up petitions have increased by over 600% showed Insolvency Service figures.

This change in approach raises two main questions: why has this happened, and what impact does this have for those navigating and advising clients that are in distress?

Why is HMRC changing enforcement approach?