From Parliament UK

Tax Avoidance and Evasion inquiry
Inquiry status: open
The deadline for written submissions is Thursday 31 May 2018

Scope of the inquiry
In recent years, HMRC has taken steps to address public concerns about the actions of individuals and businesses determined not to pay their fair share of tax. It has launched strategies to address offshore evasion and reduce the use of tax avoidance schemes. It has sought and been given a range of new powers to strengthen its hand against tax dodgers and those that design and sell the schemes to help them.

Against this background, the Treasury Sub-Committee intends to examine what progress has been made in reducing the amount of tax lost to avoidance and offshore evasion and whether HMRC has the resources, skills and powers needed to bring about a real change in the behaviour of tax dodgers and those who profit by helping them.

The Treasury Sub-Committee invites the submission of evidence in response to any of the following questions:

To what extent has there been a shift in tax avoidance and offshore evasion since 2010? Have HMRC efforts to reduce avoidance and evasion been successful?
Is HMRC adequately resourced and sufficiently skilled to identify, challenge and counteract existing and new avoidance schemes and ways of evading tax? What progress has it made since 2010 in promoting compliance in this area and preventing and responding to non-compliance?
What types of avoidance and evasion have been stopped and where do threats to the UK tax base remain?
What part do the UK’s Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories play in the avoidance or evasion of tax? What more needs to be done to address their use in tax avoidance or tax evasion?
How has the tax profession responded to concerns about its role in aiding tax avoidance and evasion? Where does it see the boundary between acceptable and unacceptable practice lie?
Submit written evidence
The deadline for written submissions is Thursday 31 May 2018

SOURCE: https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/treasury-committee/treasury-sub-committee/inquiries/parliament-2017/tax-avoidance-evasion-17-19/

Tax Avoidance and Evasion

The Treasury Sub-Committee will scrutinise the steps that HMRC has taken to address public concerns about the actions of individuals and businesses determined not to pay their fair share of tax. It will examine the amount of tax lost to avoidance and offshore evasion.

It will also look at whether HMRC has the resources, skills and powers needed to bring about a real change in the behaviour of tax dodgers and those who profit by helping them.

John Mann MP, Chair of the Treasury Sub-Committee, said:

“Tax avoidance and evasion remain matters of serious public concern. HMRC has been given additional funds in recent years to address the issue, yet the tax gap for avoidance and evasion is still billions of pounds.

The Sub-Committee will look into how well HMRC has used these additional funds to close the tax gap, whether its strategy to reduce avoidance and offshore evasion has worked, and whether HMRC’s resources are sufficient.

We’ll be pressing those who seek out loopholes to get out of paying tax and the organisations that help them to give answers to Parliament about the revenue that we are all losing out on.

And we’ll be looking in depth at avoidance and evasion in the UK’s Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories, and asking questions of those responsible.

Over the next few months, we’ll be holding all those involved to account to make sure that no one—however wealthy—can dodge paying the tax they owe.”