The UK government knows too little about the tax reliefs it provides: whether they work, or offer value for money, or even how much they actually cost, according to a new report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) published this week (Monday 20 July 2020).
The ten most expensive UK tax reliefs cost the public purse £117 billion a year - equivalent to giving up around 5 percent of GDP in foregone tax revenues. But the government’s own evaluation shows that only one of the four reliefs costing more than £1 billion a year has the intended effect on economic behaviour.
Among the most expensive, pension relief...