{"id":21412,"date":"2026-01-02T15:23:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T15:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/partners-blog\/?p=21412"},"modified":"2026-01-02T15:23:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T15:23:51","slug":"tackling-the-tax-gap-in-2026-what-is-hmrc-cracking-down-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/partners-blog\/tackling-the-tax-gap-in-2026-what-is-hmrc-cracking-down-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Tackling the tax gap in 2026 \u2013 What is HMRC cracking down on?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Heather Bright, Partner<\/em><\/p>\n

While the black hole in the public finances currently occupies the same level of corporeality as Big Foot, in that few can agree whether it exists or not.<\/p>\n

The fallout from the Autumn Budget has raised a few eyebrows and caused a wave of scepticism from commentators.<\/p>\n

What does exist is the tax gap, the gap between the amount of tax owed and the amount collected, that remains a consistent problem for HMRC despite many attempts to tackle it.<\/p>\n

The dawn of a new year sees HMRC once again do battle with the tax gap and it is worth understanding how that might impact you.<\/p>\n

How is HMRC tackling the tax gap?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The most effective way to tackle the tax gap is to tighten compliance measures and increase penalties.<\/p>\n

This is done with the aim of reducing accidental misfiling, as carelessness carries an increasingly costly price.<\/p>\n

It is no secret that SMEs are the biggest contributors to the tax gap, as in the 2023\/24 fiscal year, they failed to pay 40 per cent of the corporation tax they owed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This meant that of the \u00a336.7 billion that was owed, only \u00a322 billion was collected.<\/p>\n

As such, many of the new penalties that are set to be introduced in 2026 will centre on punishing small businesses in particular.<\/p>\n

What are the new penalties HMRC introducing in 2026?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The most notable change is the increase in penalties for Corporation Tax (CT), which is the first time there has been a notable change in 25 years.<\/p>\n

From 1 April 2026, missing a filing will attract a \u00a3200 penalty, which is double the current \u00a3100 penalty.<\/p>\n

If that does not incentivise you to make your filing, and you keep missing the deadline, the penalty increases to \u00a3400 after three months.<\/p>\n

There is a top penalty of \u00a32,000 for repeat offenders, which is given when three successive filings are late.<\/p>\n

As these are not significant amounts of money, it seems like they are more cautionary measures designed to inconvenience small businesses.<\/p>\n

Larger businesses would likely be able to absorb the penalties, but they could cause problems for smaller businesses struggling to manage operational costs.<\/p>\n

There are also penalties designed to enforce compliance with Making Tax Digital (MTD).<\/p>\n

This is designed to ensure that landlords, sole traders and self-employed individuals who earn more than \u00a350,000 a year keep up with their new filing obligations.<\/p>\n

While there is no direct penalty for missing one deadline, each missed deadline awards you a penalty point and four points means a \u00a3200 fine.<\/p>\n

The points stay on record for two years, after which they get wiped and you are given a fresh start.<\/p>\n

As with the CT fines, these are not designed to be cripplingly punitive but severe enough that you take notice and work to avoid them in the future.<\/p>\n

HMRC is set to adopt more digital systems and stringent checks to enhance compliance, so it is vital that you understand your obligations.<\/p>\n

We can help you manage your responsibilities so that you don\u2019t find yourself missing important tax deadlines.<\/p>\n

Make 2026 the year of tax compliance by <\/strong>speaking to our team today<\/strong><\/a>! <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Heather Bright, Partner While the black hole in the public finances currently occupies the same level of corporeality as … Tackling the tax gap in 2026 \u2013 What is HMRC cracking down on?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,27,12,42,31,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-business","category-heather-bright","category-hmrc","category-sme","category-tax"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/partners-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/partners-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/partners-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/partners-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/partners-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/partners-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21413,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/partners-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21412\/revisions\/21413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/partners-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/partners-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moorethompson.co.uk\/partners-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}