Senior leaders have appeared before MPs to outline plans to make more and better use of tech, as well as equipping an enlarged team of expert officials with improved data

HM Revenue and Customs is to invest in technology, data systems and artificial intelligence to support plans to collect more than half a billion pounds in tax from the UK’s wealthiest individuals in the next few years.

In a recent evidence session appearing before parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, senior officials from the tax department told MPs about efforts being taken to close an estimated £1.9bn gap in revenue collected from the country’s 850,000 wealthiest taxpayers. This includes those that earn more than £200,000 annually or hold assets in excess of £2m.

As part wider efforts to close this gap, HMRC intends, in particular, “to bring in at least an extra £500m from wealthy offshore risks in the next three or four years”, according to Philippa Madelin, director for wealthy and mid-sized business compliance.

In addition to recruiting an extra 400 experts to the existing team of 1,000 civil servants headed by Madelin, the department will also spend money on deploying new and improved technology – and ensuring the availability of better data – to support its wealthy tax-collection work.

Permanent secretary John-Paul Marks said: “We want to ensure that the team have the enablers that they need and the capabilities to be more effective and productive in their work. Those include data exchange, targeting and risking, and opportunities for us to collaborate globally with jurisdictions to ensure that we are operating offshore to the best effect, but also looking at opportunities around policy change that will help us close that tax gap.”

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HMRC’s director general of compliance Penny Ciniewicz reinforced the department’s commitment that “over the next few years, we are looking to invest in our risking and our data – because the risking only works off the data”.

She added that, alongside improvements in the information available to officials, new technology – including artificial intelligence – will help government analyse data.

“The digitisation of the inheritance tax regime, which was announced in the autumn budget, is going to be really helpful, because having that data readily and swiftly available to us improves the pace at which we can feed it into our risking and analytics.,” Ciniewicz said. “Investment in our case management systems will enable our wealthy case workers to get access to the data and information in a more timely and effective way. We want to look at the use of what people think of as AI—the generative-type AI—as well in terms of helping us to maximise our impact. We use a lot of the broader spectrum of AI at the moment, such as predictive analytics, machine learning and so on, in our risking functions, but our absolute intention over the next few years is to invest and to see a return from that.”

As well as actively pursuing those who fail comply with their tax requirements, the HMRC has previously revealed its use of “digital prompts” to help identify – and warn – wealthy individuals that may not be paying what they should.