500,000 missing people, £16 billion of lost tax

I’ve come across an interesting report by an outfit called Tax Research UK, which has found that:

* more than 500,000 companies were dissolved in the year to March 2010,
* the vast majority of these companies are removed from the Register of Companies because they have not filed appropriate documentation,
* about one third of these companies were less than two years old and had never filed accounts,
* HMRC seems never to demand information from companies who are struck off - they disappear without trace,
* the total tax lost through the fraudulent trading of companies is estimated to cost the UK Exchequer £16 billion a year.

500,000 missing people: £16 billion of lost tax