cracks are showing at hmrc, as tax officials struggle with a huge workload — this is according to mpsariffs and resources have been diverted to deal with customs and border demands, which has left hmrc facing tough choices about its other work. victoria hewson is counsel to the international trade and competition unit. how will these cracks, as they've been described, affect taxpayers? well, i think the interesting thing about the report is that it's really focused on issues like errors and forwarding tax credits, customer service, like times two and so calls to the helpline, and also the standard of employees through the paye standard of employees through the pay e syste m. standard of employees through the paye system. to be honest, while clearly brexit and border management concerns are important, are taking resources , concerns are important, are taking resources, really this is more an indicator that our tax system is far too complicated. managing and applying for all the reliefs, the tax code is just incredibly complicated to manage. perhaps that's really where the focus should

let's start with hmrc who runs our tax office in the uk for viewers around the world, they have a bignd themselves ina they really do. they find themselves in a position where they have done something which is perhaps not appropriate in terms of demanding tax or not paying it back. i have never had the money. if the taxman sends you flowers it suggest...” don't know what my husband would say about that. it suggests your tax affairs have been handled in a far from appropriate way, but it underlines the difficulties in terms ofa underlines the difficulties in terms of a business orientated world in order to get these things right and hmrc are trying to solve it with flowers. i am not sure it is the answer. say it with a cheque. we have got some tweets and we were asking you your views on this. how ha rd asking you your views on this. how hard is it for a company to say sorry. big business are usually very relu cta nt to sorry. big business are usually very reluctant to say sorry and or pay up. kenneth armitage says, a hard word because it is overused and often insincere. peter stephenso

let me just show you what hmrc said in committee in may about the cost of maximum facilitation.out the highly streamlined customs arrangement costing businesses somewhere in the late teens of billions of pounds. i started to lose count there at the number of billions. so, somewhere between 17 and 20 billion. is he right? would it cost so much money? no, not at all. it depends on how many transactions a shipper has or any exporter has. you can automate anything. you can automate these declarations. but of course if you have one declaration a year, then you need a specialist to help you make that declaration. but, for example, nissan importing goods 100 times a day, they would automate everything and there would be no interference with supply chains. final question — everybody will point to agricultural goods, veterinary goods, plants, those sort of things need to be checked. there is a system for that, it's called traces. it traces all goods between producers, for example, biological goods or veterinary goods, because we want to check on the supply chain of food for our health. i

the hmrcs head of cyber security said tackling the problem is a bit of a cat—and—mouse game.sperity of different countries against each other has been released today. educational charity legatum institute's 12th annual global prosperty index shows the uk is in 7th position. norway comes out on top in the survey, which ranks countries according to many different factors including the strength of their economies and natural enviroment. baroness philippa stroud, ceoof legatum institute, joins us now. thank you were joining us. thank you werejoining us. explain to me, interesting timing of this unlike what of what we have been hearing today from the government report on how brexit with a dealer without a deal will leave the uk in terms of the comic prosperity. without a deal will leave the uk in terms of the comic prosperitym without a deal will leave the uk in terms of the comic prosperity. it is interesting timing. what the index shows is that britain is actually in a very strong position to go through this transition. what we have seen is that that strength is particularly in

. >> in 2014 about to hmrc and the been chancellor to ask how much taxes unpaid on lighting income frome landlords they wrote back to me and said it was 500 million in their estimate which is enough to build around 7000 social homes. how much is that tax gap now? >> i say to the honorable lady that in overall terms we have enclosed in the tax gap over the years. i think my right honorable friend the chancellor said, any budget on -- is 2010, we have through the work we've been doing close of the tax gap to ensure we do with tax evasion and avoid there with collected 185 billion pounds or protector 185 billion pounds of revenue for the government. >> mr. speaker, it's a 47 years ago this week that the uk space launch took place through the black arrow project. many of us feel that too long. with the confirmation of vertical space court in scotland, very welcome, the real price it refers to work with horizontal launch. as the transluminal, it is well placed to deliver this but will the prime minister confirm that the government remains ambitious to first move on horizontal launch and will

hmrc says the number of reported scams is up 20% over the year.ice and debt levels for the restaurant group. thomas cook‘s share price remains under pressure following a shock profits warning yesterday which it blamed on the summer heatwave in the uk. in contrast, however, the british sun helped on the beach‘s financials, sending the holiday group‘s shares to the top of the ftse 250 risers. let‘s check in with the financial markets and other travel and airline firms are also lower shares in the ftse100‘s tui, are also down almost 2%. but easjyet is the biggest faller in the ftse 100, down 2.6%, the restaurant group — which owns frankie and benny‘s and garfunkels has seen its share price slide it comes after shareholders voted in favour of a plan to buy the wagamama chain for £559m. the pound gained some momentum against the dollar today and is now trading up slightly. the big news coming out today about the economic forecasts. we will get the economic forecasts. we will get the bank of england forecasts for a brexit scenario this afternoon. we wil

i found out just because years to go until the age of 60 i found outjust because i went on to the hmrcmost 65. then with just literally six months to go until my retirement age this year, i then found out that i will not receive along with 80% of other people, this new state pension figure of £165. how do you feel? i feel very let down, very angry. i sort of accepted that pension age had gone on, nothing i could do about that but itjust had gone on, nothing i could do about that but it just seems had gone on, nothing i could do about that but itjust seems as though they are chipping away at our funding for absolutely everything. and in future, we cannot increase at spending power, once we are retire, thatis spending power, once we are retire, that is it. ok. let me bring in one of our other guests. you have been served with an eviction notice, to get out of your privately rented flats which is paid for by housing benefit, the landlord want you to leave. can a visit by someone from the un make any visit to someone like? i don't think so, not directly at least. because i think they will

of course not, that is what you have hmrc seeing exactly this.s and i think it's also there is an issue about the number of calls growing exponentially because we have traumatised communities. you hear about shootings and stabbings, that in itself creates trauma and people exhibiting and presenting certain symptoms that before they would not present. and the police should not be the agency of last resort, there are other agencies which should get there before the police and should assist the police. we write are you saying that in some insta nces we write are you saying that in some instances police are having to make the call as to whether the incident thatis the call as to whether the incident that is going on, whether the person concerned is a danger only to themselves or whether they are a danger to others before the police decide whether we should respond? they have to do a proper assessment, the control room when it gets the information needs to do a proper analysis of what they have got and make sure they have got the resources to respond.

the hmrcs head of cyber security said tackling the problem is a bit of a cat—and—mouse game.million people a year still use the service. i have got a list of things to talk about, and says he married on is here to get physical. we are talking about keeping fit, something you know a lot about. that is me in the background. by the ambulance. this is about financial incentives to get you fit. this massive insurance company and apple watch have done a survey of 400,000 people in a way in which they have been offering people financial incentives to keep fit, so for example, cinema tickets and retail vouchers... for example, cinema tickets and retail vouchers. .. free popcorn! popcorn is good for you. beyond seat used popcorn during her by. popcorn with chilli powder on top. —— beyonce. they found a 34% increase in activity for those using financial incentives. they say it is up financial incentives. they say it is up to financial services and business now to take a bigger role in getting people fit. fitness pays, and paying for fitness in getting people fit. fitness pays, and payi

are going to call the national economic crime centre a whole group of the government's agencies — hmrc or deny these people their money. and what we know is we get lots of intelligence around the country, we see lots of investigations, we have financial investigators up and down within regions, but it would be better directed based on a proper authorities and priorities of the harm that we face every day, and that is what we are trying to maximise, to make sure that we really deny some of these people, both international crooks and local ones, their money. let's talk to peter kirkham, who spent over 20 years in the metropolitan police and served at every rank up to detective chief inspector, and former chief superintendent at the met police, dal babu. and joining us via webcam from central london is jason hungerford — he's a lawyer who specialises in tackling money laundering. welcome to all of you. the last big published by the years ago shows the cost 24 billion, now it is 37 billion a year and we are talking about child abuse, trafficking and drug dealing. what about the strategy to

the whole group of government agencies, hmrc, the tax people, the national crime agency, the seriousis what we are trying to maximise to make sure that we really deny some of these people, both international cricket council local ones, their money. isn't there already a system in place called the unexplained wealth order which can be used to read these people out and explain how they are per during their money? there are dozens of tools and that is just there are dozens of tools and that isjust one. we have there are dozens of tools and that is just one. we have asset freezing orders, cash seizure powers, and a whole load of tools that are used every single day. in 2015—16 we convicted people of money laundering. we are keen to make sure that everybody gets to use the best tools appropriate for the job. some of these guys use facilitators and a ccou nta nts of these guys use facilitators and accountants and others to really hide their wealth. what we need a specialist investigators. we don't have hundreds of thousands of them. we need these people to be able to look at it through the