The government should make its estimates of the UK's tax gap public to highlight the impact of avoidance, it has been claimed.
Information commissioner Richard Thomas argued that such information could ultimately help to tackle the problem of tax evasion, Accountancy Age reports.
"If the public realised the extent to which tax evasion is a drain on the economy, it could create an atmosphere in which evasion and avoidance would be less socially acceptable," he remarked.
However, according to Mr Thomas, HM Revenue & Customs has refused to publish the information because if figures for large companies are inaccurate, this could have a "negative impact" on share values.
The Chartered Institute of Taxation recently wrote an open letter to the new chancellor Alistair Darling, urging him to simplify the UK's system of taxation, Accounting Web reports.
The organisation stated that it "abhors all forms of tax evasion" - something it claimed was made easier by the complexity of the existing system.
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