HMRC Competition to Identify Deliberate Evasion and Help Close the Tax Gap

A Addendum Notice
by HM REVENUE & CUSTOMS

Source
Find a Tender
Type
Contract (Goods)
Duration
1 year
Value
£5M
Sector
TECHNOLOGY
Published
05 Aug 2025
Delivery
12 Feb 2027 to 11 Feb 2028
Deadline
26 Aug 2025 09:00

Concepts

Location

United Kingdom:

Geochart for 1 buyers and 0 suppliers

1 buyer

Description

Small business accounts for approximately 60% of the UK tax gap. This is driven by a range of customer behaviours from simple error through to deliberate evasion. Identifying deliberate evasion is inherently difficult across a very large population of more than 5m customers. By its nature its intent is to hide and deceive. This can lead to risk targeting and response being more costly for HMRC which impacts on our ability to close the tax gap and can increase burdens on compliant customers. Using data to identify potential deliberate evasion in our analytical risking processes may help improve HMRC's approach to managing this risk and the customer impacts of that. We would like to explore novel analytical techniques and data that help identify indicators of potential evasion in our risking processes. We are seeking solution(s) that can help close the tax gap by identifying deliberate evasion behaviour among small business customers. We are open to exploring a variety of potential solutions that achieve this objective. While not a formal requirement, we anticipate that some solutions will: (a) Identify or confirm potential evasion, by predicting behaviour, (b) Explore different uses of data available to HMRC or third parties. Further information and context on this problem statement is available in the tender documentation. The challenge to identify indicators of evasion: • There are an estimated 5.45 million small businesses in the UK (0 to 49 employees). • Small businesses operate in all of our main tax regimes: Corporation Tax, VAT, PAYE, Income Tax Self-Assessment. • Small business operate across almost all sectors of the economy and evasion can be more prevalent in some sectors and populations than others. • We have access to significant amounts of data provided by customers in their tax returns which can be monthly, quarterly, annual and transactional depending on the tax regime. • We also have access to some Third Party Data, e.g. Merchant Acquirer data. • We use at - scale analytics to detect anomalies as indicators of risk for further investigation. • Analysis to detect indicators of behaviour, specifically evasion behaviour, is challenging. • This can lead to risk targeting and response being more costly for HMRC and burdensome for the customer.

Renewal Options

Any contract for delivery awarded at the end of the competition will have multiple extension options in the format of 1 year base contract term + 1 year extension + 1 year extension + 1 year extension. Use of the extension options will be driven by contract performance.

Award Criteria

Stage 1 - Skills and Capabilities - Delivering for HMRC Criteria Question 1 for Stage 1 of the multi-stage competition. SKILLS AND CAPABILITIES - Delivering for HMRC With reference to Attachment B - Specification - Stage 1 and Attachment C - Slides from Launch Event 21st July, please demonstrate your skills, ability and capacity to deliver against closing the tax gap by identifying deliberate evasion behaviour. Your response must include: a) An overview of your capabilities as an organisation, b) If bidding in partnership or consortium, an overview of the members within the partnership or consortium and your expected division of responsibilities and capabilities. This question will be scored based on how well the response answers the question and any evaluation criteria included in the question in line with the scoring matrix contained in Table 1 above. Your written transcript response and video submission will be evaluated together.
Stage 1 - Proposal - Helping to Close the Tax Gap by Identifying Deliberate Evasion Behaviour Criteria Question 2 for Stage 1 of the multi-stage competition. PROPOSAL - Helping to Close the Tax Gap by Identifying Deliberate Evasion Behaviour. With reference to Attachment B - Specification - Stage 1 and Attachment C - Slides from Launch Event 21st July, please set out your proposed solution for helping to close the tax gap by identifying deliberate evasion behaviour. Your proposed solution does not need to be fully developed at this initial stage, but your response must make clear that your idea is fundamentally viable and deliverable for HMRC within the available timeframe. Your response must include: a) Solution: An overview of your proposed solution, b) Benefits: How your proposed solution will help solve the problem and contribute to closing the tax gap by identifying deliberate evasion behaviour. Your idea must be within HMRC's remit to implement and deliver: for example, your proposed solution should not require major policy changes. c) Implementation: High-level consideration of what dependent inputs from HMRC and/or third parties your solution would need or benefit from in its implementation. (Note: Prior knowledge of HMRC's internal structure, teams and systems is not required for this part and will gain no additional credit - answer this part using industry standard or common-sense terminology). d) Timing: Confirmation that your proposed solution can be developed for implementation in the timeline set out in these tender instructions. This question will be scored based on how well the response answers the question and any evaluation criteria included in the question in line with the scoring matrix contained in Table 1 above. Bidders must score at least 50 unweighted points on this question to be eligible to proceed to stage 2. Scoring 50 or higher is no guarantee of being shortlisted for stage 2. Your written transcript response and video submission will be evaluated together.

CPV Codes

  • 48000000 - Software package and information systems
  • 72000000 - IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support

Indicators

  • Renewals are available.

Other Information

** PREVIEW NOTICE, please check Find a Tender for full details. ** Updated to extend the submission deadline.

Reference

Domains