In the UK the tax loss from avoidance is estimated to run into several billion pounds across both direct and indirect taxes.
“Evading taxes is illegal, but avoiding paying unnecessary tax is one of the key ways to building wealth” stated by Investopedia. On the other hand, Tax avoidance is not illegal its just a way to find loops in the system to avoid paying “unnecessary” tax.
The tax gap over time since 2005-06, the overall trend in the tax gap, as a percentage of total tax liabilities, is down. The latest estimate is £35 billion, or 7.0% of total tax liabilities.
Actions against tax evaders:
A Range of strategies have been used by Her Majesties Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and Her Majesties Treasury (HMT) to prevent tax evasion. A few of these strategies are:
handled around 130,000 reports in the last year to our Tax Evasion and Customs Hotlines, which allow the public confidentially to notify HMRC if people are not paying the tax they owe
established a dedicated team dealing with the tax affairs of about 5,000 of the wealthiest individuals that has already brought in an additional £500 million in tax since 2009
seen more than 400 criminal convictions in 2011-12 achieving £1 billion of revenue benefit, either in losses prevented, or in payment of tax
placed more than 2,000 tax evaders in the ‘Managing Deliberate Defaulters’ programme, which means we will closely monitor and manage their tax affairs for up to five years
begun to apply a penalty since 6 April 2011 of up to 200 per cent of the tax due if an individual does not tell us about income or gains from an offshore bank account.