Reflections on HMRC’s report on wealthy taxpayers and their agents

HMRC wants to understand how it can encourage more co-operative relationships with the wealthy and their agents with the aim of driving up voluntary compliance and improving the health of the tax system.

As part of this process it commissioned researchers who undertook a small number of interviews (37) with wealthy individuals and agents. The report was published in June 2021 (tinyurl.com/4hdr7kdh).

What is the right focus for HMRC?

HMRC’s research focuses on wealthy individuals with the criteria being income of over £200 000 and/or assets of over £2m. While this is perhaps understandable in terms of targeting potential tax revenue for me it is not an individual’s wealth in itself that creates the difficulties in getting their UK tax right. In my experience the risk comes from complexity such as the type of investments and the geographical activities of the individuals....