Government Losing a "Staggering £55 bn A Year in Taxes

Govt Losing A 'Staggering' £55bn A Year In Taxes
MPs demand the Treasury sets up a co-ordinated action plan to tackle fraud and error throughout the public sector.6:00am UK, Thursday 12 December 2013 HM Treasury
In 2011-12 about £13.2bn had to be written off due to fraud and error



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The UK is losing a "staggering" £55bn a year due to fraud, error and unpaid taxes, MPs have warned.

The scale of the losses was described as "worryingly high" and the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) expressed concern about the impact on the deficit in the public finances.

The whole of government accounts drawn up by the Treasury show that in 2011-12 about £13.2bn had to be written off due to fraud and error.

However, the figures do not include local government or public corporations and the National Fraud Authority estimates the true cost of fraud to the public sector was £20.6bn.

At the same time HM Revenue and Customs has calculated the "tax gap" - the difference between the taxes it is supposed to receive and those it actually manages to collect - was £35bn.

PAC chairman Margaret Hodge said: "It is staggering that, in one year, the public sector was defrauded of over £20bn and the tax gap rose to £35bn."

The committee called on the Treasury to develop, publish and implement an action plan setting out a co-ordinated strategy for tackling fraud and error throughout the public sector.

It also voiced concern about the way the figures in the whole of government accounts (WGA) were compiled and presented.

The WGA - which was published for the first time last year and now covers the combined financial activities of 3,000 bodies - is intended to provide the most comprehensive accounting picture of the public sector in the UK.

However, the committee said its credibility had been undermined by the "poor quality" of some of the data and the Treasury needed to do more to explain the discrepancies between some of the figures in the WGA and those produced by the Office for National Statistics.

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Is there any Government that is functioning well????? Margaret Hodge is very effective in the PAC, she should be promoted.

IDEA;MAYBE THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD ENCOURAGE THE WORKING CLASS WHO PAY THEIR TAXES TO SET UP THEIR OWN BUSINESS PAYING TAXES!!!!!!!!!!!                                     

MP's are getting a BIG pay rise next year...

Apparently the Committee who made the decision is independent , but there has been such a public anger, the Politicians will stagger the rise over a couple of years.

Quote
Govt Losing A 'Staggering' £55bn A Year In Taxes
MPs demand the Treasury sets up a co-ordinated action plan to tackle fraud and error throughout the public sector.
Unquote.

What would happen to the board of a private company who returned such an appalling business report??

When banks file a report like that, they get bonuses!

I've often wondered where all this 'lost money' goes... If the average person was to lose say, a £10.00 note... That note still exists and will as often as not be in someone else's possession. They have either found it or stole it, but it's still in someones wallet or purse, somewhere.

Which brings us back to the train loads of dosh that enormous sum of money... £55 billion smackeroos represents. it would make a pile so big you would see it from miles away!

Why can't I find it?!   

fuzeta wrote:When banks file a report like that, they get bonuses!

Accountants are unaccountable to anyone, or so it seems... because if I was the head taxman the mere sight or smell of a bonus when sums of money like that are being bandied about I'd go straight for the throat...