Anger over tax office closures

The PCS civil service union has attacked the government decision to close another 14 tax offices in the UK and cut more than 1,000 jobs. A number of regional post rooms will also close.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “It makes absolutely no economic sense to continue cutting in the department that collects the taxes that fund the public services we all rely on.”

The confirmation of the cuts by HMRC came on the same day that it said that £34 billion in tax was uncollected last year.

A report for PCS in September by tax expert Richard Murphy suggested that the amount of tax owed, evaded or avoided was considerably higher than the government’s estimates.

The report valued tax evasion at £82 billion last year, and predicted that it could rise to £100 billion by 2018-19.

“Collecting even a fraction of these stolen billions would change the debate about public spending overnight and allow much-needed investment in our communities instead of more damaging cuts,” Serwotka said.

Evasion has continued to increase since 2010, despite government pledges of a clampdown.

HMRC is expected to reduce its staff numbers by around 10,000 by 2016.

Earlier this year, HMRC announced the closures of all of its 281 walk-in tax enquiry centres. A further 23 tax office closures were announced in June, leading to a series of rolling strikes by PCS to prevent the closures.

www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/news_centre/index.cfm/more-tax-offices-to-close-as-cuts-to-revenue-department-continue

www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/news_centre/recent-news.cfm/tax-evasion-spirals-to-more-than-80-billion-a-year-new-figures-show