Official Statistics

Measuring tax gaps 2024 edition: tax gap estimates for 2022 to 2023

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) statistics and methodological annexes relating to measuring tax gaps.

• From: HM Revenue & Customs
• Published: 18 October 2012
• Last updated: 21 February 2025 — See all updates

Documents

1. Tax gaps: Summary

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2. Tax gaps: VAT

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3. Tax gaps: Excise (including alcohol, tobacco and oils)

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4. Tax gaps: Income Tax, National Insurance contributions and Capital Gains Tax

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5. Tax gaps: Corporation Tax

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6. Tax gaps: Other taxes

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7. Tax gaps: Illustrative tax gap by behaviour

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Tax gaps: Background

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Tax gaps: Methodological annex

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Details

Publication schedule and announcements

VAT receipts from April 2022 to March 2023 will be revised on 21 March 2025 as per the announcement here.

This will result in revisions that will be factored into the VAT gap for 2022 to 2023, that will be published in June 2025. This will have a proportionate impact on the overall tax gap.

Revised receipts figures will be available in the HMRC tax receipts and National Insurance contributions publication on 21 March 2025.

The latest (second estimate of the) VAT gap for 2023 to 2024 will be published on 26 March 2025 at the webpage here.

If you have any queries relating to this update, please email revenuemonitoring@hmrc.gov.uk

This report provides an estimate of the tax gap across all taxes and duties administered by HMRC.

The tax gap is the difference between the amount of tax that should, in theory, be paid to HMRC, and what is actually paid.

Online tables

The full data series can be seen in the online tables.

User survey - help us improve ‘Measuring tax gaps’

We are interested in understanding more about how the outputs and data from the ‘Measuring tax gaps’ publication are used, and the decisions they inform. This is important for us so we can provide a high quality publication that meets your needs.

Complete the HMRC Measuring tax gaps 2024 user survey.

Survey responses are anonymous.

Archived tax gap reports

Previous editions of the tax gap reports are available on The National Archives website:

• 2023 edition

• 2022 edition

• 2021 edition

• 2020 edition

• 2019 edition

• 2018 edition

• 2017 edition

• 2016 edition

• 2015 edition

• 2014 and earlier

Further information and feedback

This statistical release has been produced by government analysts working within HMRC, in line with the values, principles and protocols set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

HMRC is committed to providing impartial quality statistics that meet user needs. We encourage users to engage with us so that we can improve the official statistics and identify gaps in the statistics that are produced.

If you have any questions or comments about the ‘Measuring tax gaps’ series please email taxgap@hmrc.gov.uk.

Published 18 October 2012
Last updated 21 February 2025 + show all updates

1. 21 February 2025

   Added a text box on the publication landing page alerting users of planned revisions to VAT receipts for 2022 to 2023.

2. 20 June 2024

   Published 2024 edition, including methodological annex, and archived the 2023 edition.

3. 22 June 2023

   Published 2023 edition, including methodological annex, and archived the 2022 edition.

4. 23 June 2022

   Published 2022 edition, including methodological annex, and archived the 2021 edition.

5. 8 February 2022

   A correction note has been published on both the landing page and the start of the ‘Measuring tax gaps 2021 edition’ publication.

6. 16 September 2021

   Updated to publish 'Measuring tax gaps 2021 edition - tax gap estimates for 2019 to 2020', and 'Measuring tax gaps 2021 edition - methodological annex'.

7. 25 May 2021

   Added revision announcement to the 'Details' section.

8. 30 July 2020

   Updated to correct errors identified in the behaviour breakdowns (pages 13 and 23) and the tobacco tax gap due to a correction in the cross-border shopping estimates (pages 20, 21, 25, 37, 41 to 46, and 54).

9. 9 July 2020

   Updated to publish 'Measuring tax gaps 2020 edition - tax gap estimates for 2018 to 2019', and 'Measuring tax gaps 2020 edition - methodological annex'.

10. 15 August 2019

    This release has been updated with a correction to the 2017 to 2018 lower estimate of the cigarette illicit market in Table 3.3.

11. 20 June 2019

    Updated to publish 'Measuring tax gaps 2019 edition - tax gap estimates for 2017 to 2018', and 'Measuring tax gaps 2019 edition: Methodological annex'.

12. 14 June 2018

    Updated to publish 'Measuring tax gaps 2018 edition - Tax gap estimates for 2016-17', and 'Measuring tax gaps 2018 edition: Methodological annex'.

13. 26 October 2017

    Updated to publish 'Measuring tax gaps 2017 edition - Tax gap estimates for 2015-16', and 'Measuring tax gaps 2017 edition: Methodological annex'

14. 20 October 2016

    New edition for 2016

15. 23 October 2015

    Amend to page 5 of Measuring Tax Gaps; the value of the tax gap by customer group for Individuals has been corrected to show £2.9 billion (rather than £2.1 billion).

16. 22 October 2015

    New edition for 2015

17. 16 October 2014

    New edition for 2014

18. 11 October 2013

    Update to include information for 2013

19. 18 October 2012

    First published.