The latest Public Accounts Committee report stated that HMRC had not ‘articulated a clear plan or set out a detailed timescale to give us confidence it can manage the challenge it now faces’.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, HMRC managed around 3.8m taxpayers in debt, however, the number of taxpayers in debt has increased to 6.2m in September 2021. The Committee stated that HMRC has not given it ‘confidence it can manage the challenge it now faces’.

Over the past two years, the average value of each debt increased by 60%, from £4,300 to £6,800 with the overall UK tax debt reaching £39bn, which is more than double the amount at the start of 2020. The figures show that repayment plans are now of longer duration, an average of 14 months, meaning many taxpayers will carry debts forward to their next tax bill.