HMRC to Assign Managers to Over 200 Billionaires
The tax authority has compiled its first list of billionaires with a UK tax footprint and aims to raise at least £500m from its wealthy tax gap push.
HM Revenue and Customs is assigning a dedicated "customer compliance manager" to each of more than 200 billionaires. The move is part of a crackdown meant to raise £500m.
HMRC said it has compiled, for the first time, a list of billionaires who are required to pay tax in the UK, whether or not they formally live in the country. Announcing the plan after Wednesday's budget, the authority said each billionaire with a UK tax footprint will get a customer compliance manager (CCM), because their complex tax affairs are often hard for HMRC to manage. The aim is to tackle a "wealthy tax gap" caused by those who do not pay what they ought.
The authority said billionaires' affairs often span multiple taxes, entities and jurisdictions, which calls for "early and coordinated engagement". The managers will offer each billionaire a voluntary discussion before they file their taxes. HMRC said this would "help build a shared understanding of the customers' UK tax affairs" and make later engagement "more focused and proportionate".
Technology and targets
HMRC also plans to deploy new technology to monitor wealthy individuals, defined as those with income above £200,000 or assets over £2m in any of the last three years. It named "advanced analytics, automated triggers and artificial intelligence (AI)" to spot emerging risks earlier.
The wealthy tax gap is the shortfall that arises when rich people fail to pay what they should if all of their assets were disclosed to the tax authority. For 2024-25 it was estimated at £3.6bn, or 6% of the total tax gap across the UK's entire tax-paying population. HMRC said its actions would contribute at least £500m towards a larger commitment to raise £10bn of additional tax revenue by 2030.
MPs on the parliamentary public accounts committee questioned HMRC in July last year over its lack of understanding of tax compliance among about 1.3 million wealthy taxpayers.
Adam Craggs, head of tax, investigations and financial crime at the law firm RPC, said anyone with more than £200,000 of annual income or net assets above £2m should now "reflect on how clearly they understand and can evidence their UK tax position and their interaction with HMRC".
Source: The Guardian