The UK's Tax Transparency Crisis: Can the Government Crack Down on the Wealthy?
The UK government admits it can't track how much the wealthy pay in taxes. A new report reveals HMRC's struggles, inaccurate estimates, and a sharp drop in penalties. Can technology and policy reforms help close the fiscal gap?
In this episode of the UK Business Morning podcast, Alice and Lewis delve into a pressing issue facing the UK government: its inability to accurately track the tax contributions of the wealthiest individuals. A recent committee report highlights HMRC's lack of a complete overview of individual wealth, with estimates of tax collected from the wealthy being off by billions of pounds. The discussion covers the staggering drop in penalties applied to the wealthy, the potential of artificial intelligence to improve data analysis, and the government's ongoing consideration of a wealth tax to address the fiscal deficit. With enforcement and policy challenges on the table, Alice and Lewis explore whether the UK can effectively close the gap between its fiscal goals and the realities of tax collection from the ultra-rich.
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