HMRC is paying informants to turn in wealthy tax dodgers
Key Points
- HMRC's strengthened informant reward scheme launched November 2025, targeting large corporates, wealthy individuals and offshore schemes
- UK tax gap estimated at £59.2 billion (6.4%) for 2024 to 2025
- Over 2,100 of 5,500 planned additional compliance officers recruited so far
- New powers from 1 April 2026 penalise tax advisers who facilitate non-compliance
- HMRC restarted direct recovery of tax debts from bank accounts
The UK tax authority has put a price on betrayal, and it is betting the returns will be substantial.
Buried in HMRC’s Transformation Roadmap update, published on Thursday (2 July), was confirmation that the department’s strengthened reward scheme for informants, launched in November 2025, is now a core part of its plan to close a tax gap worth £59.2 billion.
The scheme is targeting serious wrongdoing inside large corporates, among wealthy individuals, and in offshore structures and avoidance schemes.
In other words, HMRC is not interested in paying for tips about a plumber taking cash in hand but wants insiders who are willing to hand over information on high-value fraud in exchange for a reward.
HMRC confirmed that it has recruited more than 20 external experts and redeployed 200 staff specifically to tackle offshore non-compliance by wealthy individuals and the companies they control. A dedicated plan, titled Further Closing the Wealthy Tax Gap, is due for publication in Autumn 2026.
HMRC remains on track to recruit 5,500 additional compliance officers by the end of the decade, with more than 2,100 already in post. Over 1,600 of them were hired in the 2025/2026 year alone, with another 1,100 planned for 2026/2027.
Bending the rules
The advisers who help clients bend the rules are also in the crosshairs. From 1 April 2026, HMRC gained stronger powers to investigate tax advisers who deliberately facilitate non-compliance, with penalties now pegged to the tax revenue lost through their actions.
The goal is to make enabling evasion financially ruinous rather than merely embarrassing.
And for those who simply refuse to pay, the department has restarted its power to take money directly from the bank accounts of people who can afford their tax bills but choose not to settle them.
After a test phase completed in March 2026, HMRC planned to recover £22 million this way in 2026 to 2027, alongside £31 million in older debts collected through private debt collection agencies.
The government’s measures are projected to bring in an extra £10 billion annually by 2029 to 2030.
