Prosecution of people who help clients evade tax in UK falls by 75% in five years

Labour has put pressure on HMRC to crack down on tax evasion to help boost the public coffers by billions of pounds. Photograph: Yau Ming Low/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Prosecutions of the enablers of tax evasion have plummeted by at least 75% in the past five years, with fewer than five criminal cases in 2023-2024.

The targeting of enablers – anyone who knowingly helps a ­client evade tax – is a central part of HM Revenue and Customs’s (HMRC) strategy to claw back cash owed to the Treasury.