Lobby of parliament to save tax office jobs

Around 100 PCS reps and activists attended a lobby of parliament on Wednesday of last week against job losses and tax office closures.

Some 20,000 people have lost their jobs and 200 offices closed in Revenue & Customs in the last five years.

The PCS argues that the government needs to close the tax gap, not make cuts.

Richard Murphy of the Tax Justice Network spoke at a seminar following the lobby saying, “there are three parts to the tax gap – avoidance, unpaid debt and evasion – worth £123 billion.

“The Institute of Fiscal Studies estimates that we need to find £40 billion extra a year to cover the deficit. I have found that three times over – why are we talking about cuts?

“If the government committed to tackling tax evasion they could raise £60 billion. The cuts will make life worse for people. “If the government recruited 20,000 people and put them in tax offices they would raise £12 billion in uncollected tax.

“Leaving people in unemployment while the deficit gets bigger is the economics of the madhouse.”

To download the report go to » www.pcs.org.uk