HMRC nets £27bn after tax avoidance crackdown

HMRC has secured £26.6bn from clamping down on tax avoidance and evasion in the last year, its annual accounts have shown.

The tax office identified £2.7bn more such activity in 2014/15 than it did in the year before, when the figure amounted to £23.9bn. The chancellor pledged in his March Budget the government will clamp down harder on tax evasion and avoidance and plans to introduce new measures to collect an extra £3.1bn from those found to have avoided or evaded tax payments. Last year marked the first time HMRC used its new accelerated payments notices, which ask users of what the tax office deems are tax avoidance schemes to make up-front payments or face a fine. The regime brought in £768m of re...