HMRC collects record £731bn of tax in 2021-22

A record of £731.1bn in total tax revenues was collected in the last tax year according to HMRC’s recently published Annual report and accounts 2021 to 2022. This is an increase from £609bn in 2020-21 and £637bn in 2019-20. The report also reveals that more than £98bn has been paid to businesses households and self-employed people since the launch of the Covid-19 financial support schemes.

In terms of its overview of performance however HMRC reports that only 45.5% of taxpayer correspondence was turned around within 15 days. HMRC chief executive Jim Harra said owing to the exceptional circumstances HMRC had to deal with over the past few months ‘we didn’t set formal performance targets’ and ‘many of our customer service levels have nevertheless not been where we would wish them to be’. But he was confident that ‘over the course of...