Reeves to reveal the rewards of the US Heatppellyblower to deal with tax fraud
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is preparing to announce a landmark whistleblower reward that will pay attendees a share of tax revenue for exposing a major fraud – a first in the UK.
According to finance ministers, the initiative will be unveiled in the autumn budget later this month as part of a wider ‘government plan’ to close the tax gap. The scheme, modeled on a successful US scheme, allows HMRC to pay tipsters up to 30 per cent of any money raised in tax audit cases based on their information.
The move represents a major shift in Britain’s Whistreblowing church, which has traditionally relied on moral work rather than financial incentives.
“The new incentive program will target high tax fraud and high enforcement,” said a financial source.
The Treasury estimates that tax evasion costs £5.5 billion in 2022-23, although members of the Civil Affairs Committee have warned that this figure could be “just the iceberg.”
Across the 2023-24 financial year, the government lost £47 billion in unpaid taxes, underscoring the scale of the problem Reves wants to tackle.
HMRC has already increased enforcement work, making 648 raids last year – an increase of 42 per cent from 2021-22 – of almost $1 million to 92 per cent from the previous year.
The new Whistlewberler program is closely inspired by the Department of Justice’s False Claims Act and the IRS Taxpayer Service (IRS) which has received billions in unpaid bills and illegal fines.
Nick Ephgrave, then-director of the Serious Fraud Office, previously called for Britain to adopt a similar scheme.
“If you look at the example of the US, their system allows that – and I think that 86 percent of the $2.2 billion in the houses of the Department of Justice and the judgment of the Department of Justice of the US is based on the information of the whistleblower,” said Ephgrave in February 2024.
The launch comes as the government faces growing pressure to tighten tax enforcement and close loopholes for high profile individuals and organisations.
Fraud losses reached £629 million in the first half of 2025, according to UK Finance, with many operations driven by the use of AI-powered scams.
Reeves is expected to organize the whistleblower program as part of a broader campaign to make “those who owe taxes pay their fair share,” while simultaneously plugging a billion-dollar tax gap.
The Treasury did not confirm how the rewards will be calculated, but sources suggest that the system will be limited to large groups of tax accounting and corporate fraud, with oversight mechanisms in place to prevent abuse.
If implemented, the plan will mark a significant cultural and operational shift for HMRC – to match the UK with the US recognizing hempblowers as vital in the fight against economic crime.
