HMRC has assigned a personal compliance manager to every billionaire within its reach, in a significant tightening of oversight on the super-rich.
According to reports from mid-to-late September 2026, His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has refreshed its list of billionaires to cover all those with a UK tax footprint, not only those who file personal tax returns in Britain. The move draws on HMRC data, public information, and data shared by other countries. It follows criticism from the National Audit Office and a parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, which previously highlighted gaps in HMRC’s understanding of billionaires’ affairs and noted that allocation of managers had been risk-based rather than purely wealth-based.
Customer Compliance Managers (CCMs) are senior tax professionals who act as a single point of contact. They develop a detailed picture of an individual’s finances, behaviours, and risks, review returns with intelligence from UK and international sources, and challenge underpayments through compliance checks. HMRC already used CCMs for the most complex or high-risk wealthy taxpayers (roughly 15,000 people, or about 2% of its broader “wealthy” population of those with incomes of £200,000+ or assets of £2 million+). Extending this systematically to all identified billionaires marks a clear shift.
An HMRC spokesperson stated: “We want to help all customers get their tax right, including the UK’s wealthiest people. We’ve had dedicated customer compliance managers for wealthy individuals for several years, allowing us to identify and address tax risks effectively.”
The change aims to improve grip on complex, often international structures used by the ultra-wealthy and close gaps in the tax collected from this group. Wealthy individuals as a whole already contribute a large share of personal tax receipts, but previous reviews found incomplete coverage of the very richest. This dedicated approach is expected to help ensure more accurate compliance going forward.
Given the exodus from the UK, these new roles may not be that secure!
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