Defeat the Deficit Invest in HMRC

The Defeat the Deficit campaign was launched in 2010 to support a radical approach to raising revenue & defeating the deficit

The Government wants to reduce the massive budget deficit by cutting public expenditure and raising taxes. ARC believes there is a bolder and more radical option to help defeat the deficit: raising more revenue by using skilled tax professionals to close the tax gap.

Did you know the UK tax gap is over £50 billion?

This is the amount that tax cheats try to avoid paying every year. That equals an extra £1,000 of revenue lost for every adult.

ARC members challenge the tax cheats.

We bring in up to 60 times our salary costs. Last year we made a significant contribution to the £12 billion recovered from tax cheats. HMRC is one of the most efficient tax agencies in the world – it costs less than one penny per pound collected.

An ARC member earning £50,000 could generate £3m in additional tax each year; enough to pay for 100 nurses or the teachers in two schools.

The Government wants to reduce the amount spent on HMRC’s work. These cuts will mean more cuts to public services and bigger tax increases for those who pay their fair share.

We know we can bring in more money to Defeat the Deficit. But we need more, not less, resources to do this. HMRC has already made substantial ef ciency savings. In the last two years alone it has reduced costs by over £500m a year and reduced its staff by 15,000, or 18%. More cuts will mean less money collected and more cheats.