The usual annual update on the UK tax gap has been published. The tax gap is the difference between the amount of tax due and the amount collected. According to the various publications, the tax gap has fallen from 8.4 per cent in 2005–06 to 6.4 per cent in 2013–14.

The largest reduction is in the Corporation Tax gap which has halved since 2005–06, from 14 per cent to 7 per cent of relevant tax liabilities. The publications cite a sustained downward trend for both large and small businesses, with the overall reduction driven mainly by large businesses.

HMRC’s Measuring Tax Gaps 2015 and methodological annex documents are published on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/measuring-tax-gaps.

The tax gap estimates for 2012–13 and earlier years have been revised due to the inclusion of new data and methodological improvements.