Tax evasion

====United Kingdom====
[[File:HMRC offshore evasion poster February 2014.jpg|thumbnail|Propaganda poster issued by the British tax authorities to counter offshore tax evasion]]
[[HMRC]], the UK tax collection agency, estimated that in the tax year 2016–17, pure tax evasion (i.e. not including things like hidden economy or criminal activity) cost the government £5.3 billion. This compared to a wider tax gap (the difference between the amount of tax that should, in theory, be collected by HMRC, against what is actually collected) of £33 billion in the same year, an amount that represented 5.7% of liabilities. At the same time, [[tax avoidance]] was estimated at £1.7 billion (this does not include international tax arrangements that cannot be challenged under the UK law, including some forms of base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS)).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/715742/HMRC-measuring-tax-gaps-2018.pdf |title=Measuring tax gaps 2018 edition |publisher = HM Revenue & Customs |date = 14 June 2018}}</ref>

In 2013, the [[Cameron–Clegg coalition|Coalition government]] announced a crackdown on [[economic crime]]. It created a new criminal offence for aiding tax evasion and removed the requirement for tax investigation authorities to prove "intent to evade tax" to prosecute offenders.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31961405|title=UK government announces corporate tax evasion clampdown|work=BBC News|date = 19 March 2015}}</ref>

In 2015, [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]] [[George Osborne]] promised to collect £5 billion by "waging war" on tax evaders by announcing new powers for HMRC to target people with offshore bank accounts.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.channel4.com/news/george-osborne-budget-2015-tax-avoidance-general-elections|title=George Osborne wages war on tax evasion and avoidance|work=Channel 4 News|date = 19 March 2015}}</ref> The number of people prosecuted for tax evasion doubled in 2014/15 from the year before to 1,258.<ref>{{cite news |url =http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/money/tax/article4640191.ece |title=Lawyers and tradesmen caught in tax clampdown|last1= Ames |first1= Jonathan|last2= Gibb |first2= Frances|date = 14 December 2015|url-access=limited}}</ref>