TaxWatch is an investigative think tank shining a forensic light on who pays tax, who doesn’t, and why
“New £2.6bn tax dodging crackdown can’t work if existing tools are barely being used”: TaxWatch Budget analysis
The Budget’s third-largest tax pledge relies on a UK tax authority that is suffering from recruitment delays and unfinished IT systems. Just 26 of 6,700 extra compliance/debt staff promised by Chancellor are so far in post. A key tax to counter digital giants’ profit-shifting will remain despite Trump pressure, but the Budget has missed opportunities to tackle abused corporate reliefs now as large as the child benefit budget.
Staffing delays could threaten Chancellor’s £15 billion tax revenue plans
Though it’s been absent from the pre-Budget debate, the Chancellor’s second-biggest revenue-raising policy so far is a plan to boost HMRC’s personnel & systems: recruiting 6,700 more staff to chase an extra £15.5 billion of evaded tax and tax debts. Yet TaxWatch has found that just 26 of these promised new staff are yet in post, calling into question a key plank of the government’s tax and spend plans.
In the run-up to a make-or-break Budget, TaxWatch’s new State of Tax Administration report takes a deep dive into how HMRC has been running the tax system over the last year.
Has the Chancellor agreed a $6 billion tax break for US big tech?
A tax deal for US multinationals backed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves could hand US companies a $40 billion annual tax break next year, including some $6 billion for US tech giants, according to new analysis from TaxWatch.
Over half of £2 billion UK tax break goes to just ten companies, and over a quarter to just one
Previously undisclosed figures show that a single large pharmaceutical company has received a £3.4 billion tax cut – including £486 million in 2024 alone – from a little-scrutinised tax incentive supposed to stimulate UK innovation, jobs and manufacturing, even though that company has cut UK jobs and shut down UK factories.