This report provides an estimate of the tax gap across all taxes and duties administered by HMRC.
The tax gap is the difference between the amount of tax that should, in theory, be paid to HMRC, and what is actually paid.
8 February 2022: Correction to ‘Measuring tax gaps 2021 edition’
HMRC have identified an error in the ‘Measuring tax gaps 2021 edition’ official statistics published in September 2021. This error caused an overestimation of the Corporation Tax gap and resulted in an overestimation of the overall tax gap in 2019 to 2020 and 2018 to 2019 of 0.1 percentage points in both years.
The corrected UK tax gap is estimated to be 5.2% of total theoretical tax liabilities (£34.8 billion) in 2019 to 2020 (0.1 percentage points or £0.6 billion lower than previously published) and 4.9% (£32.2 billion) in 2018 to 2019 (0.1 percentage points or £0.4 billion lower than previously published).
The corrected Corporation Tax gap is estimated to be 7.2% (£5.2 billion) in 2019 to 2020 (0.8 percentage points or £0.6 billion lower than previously published) and 7.3% (£4.7 billion) in 2018 to 2019 (0.6 percentage points or £0.4 billion lower than previously published).
These corrections will not be reflected in our ‘Measuring tax gaps 2021’ publication. HMRC has published a correction note on GOV.UK in the ‘Schedule of updates and announcements for HMRC’s statistics’ and the start of the ‘Measuring tax gaps 2021 edition’ publication to ensure users of the statistics easily access the corrected statistics.
HMRC’s next ‘Measuring tax gaps’ publication, which is planned for publication on 23 June 2022, will include revised estimates for the tax gap time series. The tax gap estimates will be corrected alongside other updates HMRC make to the tax gap time series to reflect the latest data available and methodological improvements.
If you have any queries relating to these statistics, please contact taxgap@hmrc.gov.uk.
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Methodological annex
The annex document provides more detail of the data and methodology used to produce estimates of the tax gap.
Online tables
The full data series can be seen in the online tables.
Archived tax gap reports
Previous editions of the tax gap reports are available on The National Archives website:
Further information and feedback
This statistical release has been produced by government analysts working within HMRC, in line with the values, principles and protocols set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
HMRC is committed to providing impartial quality statistics that meet user needs. We encourage users to engage with us so that we can improve the official statistics and identify gaps in the statistics that are produced.
If you have any questions or comments about the ‘Measuring tax gaps’ series please email taxgap@hmrc.gov.uk.
