Report a tax dodger and HMRC could pay you 30%
Key Points
- HMRC pays informants up to 30% of tax recovered in cases over £1.5 million
- A qualifying tip-off could be worth £450,000 or more
- The payments fall under HMRC's Strengthened Reward Scheme
- HMRC is exploring publishing aggregated data on informant case outcomes
HMRC will pay informants rewards worth up to 30% of the tax it recovers in cases where more than £1.5 million would otherwise have gone unpaid, the tax authority confirmed in correspondence to the Committee of Public Accounts published on Friday (10 July).
The payments fall under HMRC’s Strengthened Reward Scheme, which increases payments to informants who provide high-quality information about serious non-compliance, including among the UK’s largest businesses.
On a £1.5 million recovery, a qualifying informant could receive up to £450,000, with no upper limit stated for larger cases.
HMRC told the Committee it uses media campaigns alongside the scheme to encourage the public and informants to come forward with information about serious non-compliance.
It said it has a duty to protect the identities of informants, but is exploring how to improve transparency around the arrangements it makes with them, including publishing more aggregated data on the outcomes of cases involving informants.
The disclosure came as part of the Committee’s report into HMRC’s tax compliance work with large businesses.
HMRC’s large business directorate brought in £15.8 billion in compliance yield in 2024–25, tax revenue that would otherwise have been lost to the Exchequer, equivalent to £95 for every £1 spent on staff pay. That figure has doubled since 2021–22.
The Committee said Parliament and the public need reassurance that large businesses are paying their fair share, and criticised the limited public information HMRC provides on its most complex and long-running cases.
In 2024–25, HMRC’s tax assurance settlement programme, its main public reporting mechanism on disputes, examined only 20 disputes involving large businesses.
HMRC said it is investing in greater intelligence management capabilities, which should enable more transparent reporting on informant cases in future.
Large businesses had £70.1 billion of taxes under consideration by HMRC as at October 2025, with around half of the roughly 2,000 businesses in the directorate’s remit under investigation at any one time.
International tax risks, including businesses artificially shifting profits to lower-tax jurisdictions, account for around £21 billion of that total.
