§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the estimated amount of money lost in each of the last five fiscal years to tax fraud and evasion. [162224]
§ Dawn Primarolo[holding answer 22 March 2004]: There is no reliable estimate of the overall "tax gap" for direct taxes. Lord Grabiner in his review of the hidden economy and the OECD's Centre for Tax Policy and Administration have both concluded that it is a concept difficult if not impossible to measure.
Estimates for indirect tax losses can be found in 'Measuring and Tackling Indirect Tax Losses' (December 2003). A copy of this document has been placed in the House of Commons Library.