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How can tax be lost if it is not due in the first place? ANDY WELLS is struck by recent Revenue thinking
KEY POINTS
- Differences of opinion on tax issues contribute £6 billion to the tax gap according to HMRC.
- Opposing HMRC’s constitutes ‘a behaviour’.
- HMRC must be more accurate in their terminology.
- Tax not legally due cannot be lost tax.
HMRC’s document Protecting Tax Revenues published on 9 December 2009 refers extensively to the ‘tax gap’. 
I read it (yes I admit I am a sad case) and was surprised to find it referred to a tax gap arising from ‘taxpayers and HMRC taking different views of the law’: see for example paragraph 5.14 of the document.
This is not tax lost due to tax avoidance strategies as that is dealt with separately. It suggests that 15% of the tax...
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