Britain is a nation of tax dodgers

The government estimates that around £45bn of unpaid taxes stays in peoples' pockets each year. Other estimates suggest it's more like £100bn. But it's not just corporation tax evasion we're talking about here - it's just as likely to be rife amongst cash-in-hand earners too.

How much more money would the UK government get in every year if it managed to collect every penny it was owed in taxes?

There are various estimates of the size of this 'tax gap'. The government's estimate puts it at around £45bn. Other estimates suggest something over £100bn.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.