HMRC rakes in record £4.6billion with major tool which 'harvests data from bank accounts and social media'

The Connect database brought in £4.6billion in 2024-25, a 35 per cent jump on its usual yearly total of £3.4billion, according to data obtained by law firm Pinsent Masons.

The boost comes as HMRC steps up efforts to close the UK's £46.8 billion "tax gap" - the amount of tax that should be collected but isn’t, equal to 5.3 per cent of the total bill.

Connect works by pulling together information from different sources and linking it to spot patterns and possible tax problems that humans alone would struggle to detect, HMRC explained

"It is not the sole deciding factor in beginning or deciding the direction of a tax investigation. Other factors are also considered and human insight always makes the final judgment," HMRC stated.

Legal expert Ian Robotham explained that the platform "harvests data from . . . banks, financial institutions, online marketplaces, we've even seen a suggestion that they include social media information and things like databases of property lettings".

HMRC refused to disclose specific data sources, warning such details "would be of considerable interest to potential wrongdoers -- including, but not limited to, serious organised criminals".

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Mr Robotham, legal director at Pinsent Masons, described the £4.6billion figure as "reasonably significant" when measured against the overall tax shortfall.

"The fact that HMRC is using big data and the fact that they are recovering, on their own figures, a considerable amount extra by use of [Connect] shows that it is working," he said.

Economics professor Arun Advani from the University of Warwick praised the system's effectiveness. He called Connect "a really good example of how much you can improve enforcement when you have access to good data and when you link that data on a population level".

The Connect system has been in use since 2010, steadily improving the tax office’s ability to uncover irregularities using advanced data analysis.

However, despite its success, MPs have warned there are still big gaps in HMRC’s data. In particular, Parliament has found the tax office does not have a full picture of how much tax billionaires are paying.

A House of Commons public accounts committee report found: "HM Revenue & Customs has no overview of an individual's total wealth and faces challenges in getting all the data it needs to risk assess and target wealthy people."

Committee member Lloyd Hatton criticised HMRC's calculations regarding high-net-worth individuals.

The Labour MP claimed estimates for both the "wealthy tax gap" and "offshore tax gap" were "woefully inaccurate" by billions of pounds.

These limitations suggest Connect's impressive results may still leave substantial revenue uncollected from Britain's wealthiest taxpayers.