Cigarette tax gap halved

A new report published today shows HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has slashed the tax gap on illicit cigarettes and tobacco by more than half since 2005.

Between April 2023 and March 2024 HMRC also secured prison sentences totalling 148 years against 107 cigarette and tobacco fraudsters.

In the same period, more than 1.3 billion illicit cigarettes have been seized, worth more than £678 million in tax, along with hand-rolling tobacco worth £41 million.

These new figures, which were published today show the cigarette smuggling tax gap - the amount of estimated duty lost every year to cigarette fraud - has now reduced from 16.9% in 2005, to 6.9%.

Just last month, two crooked carpenters who smuggled millions of illegal cigarettes into the UK inside planks of wood were jailed for nine-and-a-half years.

Regimantas Nekrosevicius, 45, and Edvardas Zolynas, 43, used the same timber planks in a dozen shipments to and from Eastern Europe.

The multi-million pound tax scam was uncovered after 5.4 million cigarettes were seized by Border Force colleagues at the Yorkshire port of Goole, in August 2018. HMRC investigators proved the pair had received more than a dozen deliveries worth an estimated £19.9 million in evaded duty.

And in June last year a gang that was caught red handed with millions of counterfeit cigarettes at a Lincolnshire farm were jailed for 26 years.

Earlier this year HMRC and Border Force published a new illicit tobacco strategy ‘Stubbing Out the Problem’, which set out a continued commitment to reduce the trade in illicit tobacco, with a focus on reducing demand, and tackling the organised crime groups who are responsible.

Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, said:

“We are determined to tackle the tax gap to help rebuild the public finances and ensure everyone pays their fair share.

"Stamping out the illicit tobacco trade will also cut down funding for wider crime and improve public health."

Notes to Editors

1. View the report in full here.
2. You can read more about some of HMRC’s recent successes combatting cigarette and tobacco fraud here, here and here.
3. The estimated duty gap for hand-rolling tobacco has also reduced by half (from 65.2% to 33.3% over the same period).
4. The tax gap figures are calculated just over a year in arrears. The latest figures available are 2022-2023.
5. HMRC also works closely with Trading Standards to disrupt the illicit tobacco trade at retail level – known as Operation CeCe. This work began in January 2021 and has already led to the seizure of over 51 million illicit cigarettes and nearly 13 tonnes of illicit hand-rolling tobacco in the first three years.
6. Anyone with information about the smuggling, distribution or sale of illicit tobacco should report it online.
7. You can find out more about HMRC's approach to tax fraud at gov.uk.
8. Broadcast interviews with a HMRC spokesperson are available on request
9. Follow HMRC’s Press Office on Twitter @HMRCpressoffice