Filling the tax gap and attacking evasion/avoidance - not as difficult as it sounds

There have been suggestions that finding £5 billion from more effective compliance measures is a 'pie in the sky' figure. So here's another organisation who claim that it can be done. Here's what they have to say...

Our objective is to reduce tax losses by an additional £4 billion in 2010-11 and tax credit losses by £1 billion by 31 March 2011.

What we are going to do.

1. Improve support for those who are willing and able to pay the tax due and claim what they are entitled to

2. Improve support for those who are willing but need help

3. Improve prevention of fraud

4. Improve our relationship-managed service for our largest customers

5. Tackle deliberate non-compliance

6. Improve our approach to dealing with avoidance cases

7. Improve our management of debt while helping those in temporary difficulties

You might be getting the idea of where this is leading to. Yes, it's a direct quote from the 2010-11 Business Plan of HM Revenue and Customs, a quite fascinating document for those of a bureaucratic disposition.

And who set that target? Might it be the Government, the Labour Government? Gosh, I think that it might be...