Billions of pounds of tax remain uncollected as HMRC reports the tax gap has grown to £46.8bn, equivalent to 5.3%, with small businesses the worst offenders for yet another year
Corporation tax is the biggest unpaid tax, at 40% of the total at £18.6bn, with the worst segment being small businesses, which dominate the tax gap and fail to pay taxes at an industrial scale.
The share of the tax gap attributed to small businesses has increased over the last five years, from 48% of the overall tax gap before the pandemic in 2019-20 to 60% in 2023-24, failing to pay a staggering £28.08bn in tax in 2023-24, revealed latest HMRC Tax Gap figures.
The £28.08bn small business figure is split between various taxes, but is mainly corporation tax. For example the HMRC Tax Gap data showed that they did not pay £14.7bn in corporation tax, a further £900m in PAYE and also £5.8bn from business taxpayers in self assessment.
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