HMRC claws back nearly £500mn in underpaid capital gains
Last year the tax authority nearly doubled the amount it pulled in from CGT probes compared with 2024-25.Jamie John
Published6 HOURS AGO
HM Revenue & Customs clawed back half a billion pounds in unpaid capital gains tax last year, nearly doubling its yield compared with the year before, as the UK tax authority stepped up investigations into payments of the levy.
The agency recovered £477mn in additional tax in 2025-26, up by 82 per cent from the previous year, according to data obtained under a Freedom of Information request by the FT. HMRC concluded 9,400 probes in the same year, up from 3,200 in 2021-22.
In recent years the UK authority has become more assertive in its pursuit of untaxed gains, advisers said, asking for more information from taxpayers and taking increasingly aggressive stances when reaching settlements.The increase in interventions since 2021-22 is also a result of HMRC recruiting more officers and redeploying compliance staff who were moved elsewhere to support Covid schemes during the pandemic, the UK tax authority said.
HMRC has come under pressure in recent years to increase tax receipts by improving taxpayer compliance. The agency is seeking in particular to improve compliance among wealthy people, with a compliance plan set to be published later this year."
FT.com
"Wealthy people," eh? Who'd have thought it?
