Speeches by Hatton.

“Now that that change to the non-dom tax regime has been made, do you not think it would be valuable for HMRC to know how many billionaires are paying tax in the UK and how many paid tax in the UK in the last financial year? If you generate your wealth here, do your business here and are tax resident here, we should pro…”

“Before we move on, I have one final question, and I think I probably know the answer. Does HMRC know internally, and is it willing to publish it if it does, how much tax billionaires paid to HMRC in the previous financial year? Do you have that information, or do you not think it is worth having if you do not?”

“Is that third-party data collected in bulk? Do you analyse all of it, or do you do it on an ad hoc basis?”

“That is reassuring to hear. My understanding is that, in the United States, they allow academic researchers to make that link between tax records and the Forbes 400 list, which I suppose is their equivalent of the Sunday Times Rich List. Would you allow HMRC to do a similar thing, where it works with academics and othe…”

“The Chair makes a really important point. Has HMRC ever tried to link the Sunday Times Rich List with your own tax records to estimate how many billionaires listed are tax resident here in the UK? Has that work ever been completed?”

“To conclude, you do not really know how many billionaires pay tax in the UK.”

“I very much do not want to get into tax policy. As the Chair will rightly say, that is not the work of this Committee. It is just whether HMRC has the resource and the tools to do so.”

“I understand that, but I would like to know whether HMRC has the resource and ability to find out how many billionaires are or are not paying tax in the United Kingdom. Whether or not you choose or seek to do so, are you able to?”

“Out of interest, both Penny and Philippa, could you, if you wanted to, find out the answer to that question internally of how many billionaires pay tax currently in the United Kingdom, or are you not able to do so?”

“Touching on the points that my colleague Oliver mentioned, do you not think it would be helpful to have some sort of segmentation so we can look at the very wealthiest. There is a broad spectrum of wealthy individuals between those earning several hundred thousand pounds a year and billionaires or multi-billionaires. D…”

“Going back to my first question, if you risk assess everyone, could you tell us how many billionaires there are paying tax in the United Kingdom?”

“To be clear, you said that you risk assess everyone.”

“Do you think that it is effective to pick and choose which taxpayers you take a closer look at—those super-rich taxpayers—rather than to do it by bulk and look at every single one and all the data that is collected? Why are you doing it in that ad hoc way where you only go at certain cases?”

“You are saying that the reason why you do not know how many billionaires pay tax in the United Kingdom is either because of a lack of information or because you look at it only on a specific case-by-case basis.”

“I have one final question, if that is all right, Chair, just to park this issue. In 2023-24, HMRC prosecuted only 25 wealthy taxpayers, as set out in the NAO Report. I am concerned that that does undermine the rule of law if offences were not pursued in the courts. There is a serious risk that some very wealthy individ…”

“My objective rests on you having an accurate figure for what the offshore tax gap is.”

“That would only get you to 30 prosecutions, though, would it not?”

“But you do think that it happens.”

“The Chair raises a really important point here. Following our session with your predecessor, JP, the Government agreed with this Committee’s recommendation that HMRC research which interventions are most effective in achieving that strong deterrent effect for tax evaders and other organised criminals. What progress has…”

“Will there be a publication date for the strategy to be put in one place?”