On 27 May HMRC published an online document entitled Fast facts which has as its strapline: ‘Record revenues for the UK’. It has a foreword by David Gauke exchequer secretary to the Treasury in which he congratulates HMRC for its record compliance yield of £23.9bn for 2013/14.
Sounds good. How is the £23.9bn made up?
Good question. Unfortunately the document itself gives no information whatsoever about the make up of the £23.9bn. It simply states the number and says that this was £1bn above the target set by the minister.
So what is in the document then?
The document contains brief snapshots of a number of different initiatives across a range of taxes covering periods from 2008 to 2018.
OK let’s come back to that later. What...