The department has outlined its intent to put in place a £6m commercial engagement with the aim of hearing from possible suppliers of new technology or techniques for data analysis

HM Revenue and Customs is seeking to engage with specialised digital and data companies who can propose “novel and innovative solutions” that could help close the UK’s near-£50bn annual tax gap.

In a newly published commercial planning notice, HMRC informs prospective providers that, in a few days’ time, the department intends to launch a procurement process for a “competition to tackle deliberate evasion and help close the tax gap”.

The notice, which adds that “closing the tax gap is a key strategic priority for HMRC”, quantifies the gap as 5.3% of “total theoretical tax liabilities” during the 2023/24 – equating to “£46.8bn in absolute terms”.

The document goes on to explain that the scale of the tax system and the native of evasive offences can make it very challenge to tackle the issue.

“[The tax gap] is driven by a range of customer behaviours from simple error to deliberate evasion,” it says. “Identifying deliberate evasion is inherently difficult across a very large population of customers. By its nature the intent of deliberate evasion is to hide and deceive. This can lead to sub-optimal targeting of investigations by HMRC which impacts HMRC’s ability to close the tax gap and increases the burden on compliant customers. Being able to identify deliberate evasion accurately at population level will improve HMRC’s approach to managing the tax gap and reduce the impact on compliant customers.”

Related content

• HMRC AI and tech to support plan to collect extra £500m tax from most wealthy
• HMRC opens anti-fraud centre as stated losses from recent phishing campaign increase by £2m
• HMRC creates £500m legacy tech and security programme after merging major projects

To experiment with potential new means of identifying and pursuing tax evaders, HMRC is planning to put in place an initial one-year engagement beginning in February 2027. This deal – which is valued at £6m and can be extended into a four-year contract, if the department so chooses – is intended to feature suppliers of new tech- and data-powered means of combatting deliberate non-payment of tax.

“This competitive procurement will invite novel and innovative solutions to closing the tax gap within a customer group on the theme of tackling deliberate evasion,” the notice says. “Potential solutions may include – but are not limited to – analytical techniques and data that can help identify indicators of potential evasion in HMRC’s risking processes. However, this is an open competition, and HMRC would like to explore a range of innovative solutions that can contribute to the primary objective of closing the tax gap.”

Ahead of inviting bids, on Monday at 11am HMRC is hosting “a launch event introducing the problem statement and the detail of the competitive flexible procedure will be held virtually”. This engagement event will take place via Microsoft Teams.

Once a formal tender has been launched, the department expects to invite bids until 18 August.