HMRC suspects US companies have underpaid £5.6bn in UK tax

HMRC believes that US companies made up almost half (48.6%) of the underpaid UK tax from all foreign companies underpaying £5.6bn in UK tax in 2022-23 according to information in its 2022-23 annual report. This is an increase of 14% on the £4.9bn that HMRC considered US businesses had underpaid in the previous year.

Businesses in Switzerland are estimated to have underpaid UK tax of about £1.2bn followed by Germany (£685m) and France (£606m).

The figures show that the tax underpaid in 2022-23 by all foreign companies was £11.5bn 6.9% higher than in 2021-22 when £10.8bn was suspected of being underpaid.

Andrew Snowdon partner and head of tax at UHY Hacker Young said: ‘Global tax authorities are becoming even more determined to claim all the tax owed from large multinationals. It is often pointed out that US tech companies sometimes pay a much...