As the Government cracks down on a large pile of unpaid taxes that accumulated during the pandemic, it should carefully sort out those who need extra support to pay, MPs have said.
Taxpayers still owe around £39 billion to the taxman, up significantly from the pre-pandemic level of around £16 billion, the Public Accounts Committee said on Saturday. This has reduced significantly since a peak of £67 billion in August 2020, but MPs called for HM Revenue and Customs to develop a plan to manage debt down to pre-pandemic levels.
“The public purse is rattling but a chunk of the tax revenues needed to refill it have not been collected,” said PAC chair Dame Meg Hillier. “Add to that the pandemic and record inflation, and HMRC has a tricky balance to strike.
