Investigations into profit shifting yielded £8bn in past five years

HMRC collected almost £1.5bn in extra tax from investigations into large corporates shifting profits overseas in the past year according the HMRC statistics. This brings the total the tax authority has collected from these investigations to about £8bn in the past five years.

In 2021-22 HMRC also settled a record number of investigations into businesses shifting profits overseas – a total of 175 which is 41% higher than the 124 settled in the previous year.

This is the result of HMRC ramping up its scrutiny of large corporates’ tax arrangements around transfer pricing according to law firm Pinsent Masons.

Steven Porter partner and head of tax disputes and investigations at Pinsent Masons said: ‘HMRC has become much stricter in its interpretation of what makes an acceptable transfer pricing arrangement as well as more closely examining the implementation of any transfer pricing arrangements. Cross...