HMRC to Assign Personal Tax Managers to More Than 200 Billionaires

The UK tax authority, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), is assigning a dedicated compliance manager to each of more than 200 billionaires with a UK tax footprint. The move is part of a crackdown that HMRC says will raise at least £500 million, according to The Guardian.

HMRC announced the plan after Wednesday's budget. It said it had compiled, for the first time, a list of billionaires who must pay tax in the UK, whether or not they formally live in the country.

How the billionaire compliance scheme will work

Each billionaire on the list will get a "customer compliance manager." HMRC said these people often have complicated tax affairs that span several taxes, entities and countries, and that this calls for earlier and better-coordinated contact.

According to the Guardian, the managers will offer each billionaire a voluntary discussion before the person files a tax return. HMRC said the aim is to build a shared understanding of the person's UK tax affairs so that later dealings are more focused and proportionate.

New technology aimed at wealthy taxpayers

HMRC also plans to deploy new technology to monitor wealthy individuals more broadly. It defines them as people with income above £200,000 or assets above £2 million in any of the last three years. The tools include advanced analytics, automated triggers and artificial intelligence. HMRC said they would help it spot emerging risks earlier and focus enforcement where it will matter most.

The "wealthy tax gap" behind the push

HMRC says the effort targets the wealthy tax gap, the difference between what rich people pay and what they would owe if all their assets were disclosed. The Guardian reported that the gap for 2024-25 was estimated at £3.6 billion. That is equivalent to 6% of the total tax gap across the UK's entire tax-paying population.

The authority said the new measures would contribute at least £500 million toward a wider commitment to raise £10 billion in additional tax revenue by 2030.

The Guardian noted that MPs on the parliamentary public accounts committee questioned HMRC in July last year over its limited understanding of tax compliance among about 1.3 million wealthy taxpayers.

Why it matters beyond the billionaires

The personal managers apply only to the billionaires on HMRC's list. The monitoring technology, however, covers a far larger group: anyone whose income or assets pass the thresholds in any of the last three years. That group is the roughly 1.3 million wealthy taxpayers the committee asked about, according to the Guardian's account, although the article does not say that the two figures are identical.

For the wider public, the stated purpose is to bring in money that HMRC says is currently going unpaid. The £500 million is a minimum target within a £10 billion goal for 2030. The sources do not say how the money would be spent.

Adam Craggs, head of tax, investigations and financial crime at the law firm RPC, told the Guardian that anyone with income above £200,000 or net assets above £2 million should now reflect on how clearly they understand their UK tax position. He said they should also consider how well they can document it and their dealings with HMRC.

What remains unclear

HMRC has not, according to the Guardian's report, said how many billionaires are on the list beyond "more than 200." It has also not said which individuals are included or how the voluntary discussions will be handled in practice.

Around Prague, based on reporting by The Guardian