Edinburgh top Scottish city for residents admitting unpaid tax

Edinburgh is among the top 10 cities in the UK where residents admit to unpaid tax, research has found.

Research by accountants UHY Hacker Young indicates there were 23 disclosures of unpaid tax per 100,000 population last year in the Capital.

Edinburgh, which was the only Scottish city on the list, came in second place to St Albans, where there were marginally more (24) disclosures.

Other cities in a top 10 list published by the company include Slough, Bournemouth, Milton Keynes and London.

Edinburgh is in the top ten cities where residents admit to unpaid tax.

Andrew Snowdon, of UHY Hacker Young, said: “Tax avoidance is not restricted to super-rich neighbourhoods of London such as Kensington and Chelsea. A lot of middle-income earners have been sucked into tax schemes over the last two decades.

“Some very normal commuter belt towns are minor hotspots for admitting unpaid tax, which may reflect their residents’ views on the rising tax burden in areas like income tax and stamp duty land tax.

“HM Revenue and Customs is prone to take a much more lenient approach if a disclosure is made unprompted.

“As HMRC continues to beef up its compliance teams and data resources, there is increasingly nowhere to hide for those with unpaid tax bills.”

The full list (disclosures per 100,000 population):

1 St Albans (24)

2 Edinburgh (23)

3 Slough (19)

4 Bournemouth (15)

5 Milton Keynes (15)

6 London (15)

7 Bristol (14)

8 Oxford (14)

9 Dartford (13)

10 Brighton (13)

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