Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of the impact of tax fraud on the tax gap.

HMRC does not make a separate estimate of the amount of the impact of tax fraud within the tax gap.

HMRC defines fraud as any deliberate omission, concealment, or misinterpretation of information, or the false or deceptive presentation of information or circumstances in order to gain a tax advantage.

Tax fraud covers a wide range of illegal activity, including:

• deliberately submitting false tax returns
• falsely claiming repayments or reliefs
• hiding income, gains or wealth offshore
• smuggling taxable goods

Some of this is carried out by dishonest individuals, but organised criminals also deliberately target the tax system for financial gain.

The tax gap includes the following illustrative estimates by customer behaviour for the tax year 2020-21.