If you go back a year you can get some detail into what HM Revenue and Customs spends it's money on (90% of it is under the title 'social protection' which is child welfare and tax credits). The collection and enforcement looks like it costs 4 billion at most.

Tax credits deserve some scrutiny. A significant portion of tax revenue is effectively being paid as a subsidy to businesses allowing them to systematically underpay their staff.

I'm not sure what this number represents, assuming it is correct, but it is certainly not how much it costs to run HMRC.

"It cost £4 billion to run HMRC in 2018-19" [1] (page 18)

[1] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...

That may include tax credits, don't assume it is just "administration" costs.

Yes, HMRC has 56,000 employees, so it's unlikely that's all or indeed mostly administrative costs.

That data looks incorrect. According to this, the HMRC budget is 4 billion.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-annual-repor...

Which also matches the 4 billion that the HMRC wikipedia page links to

https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130127142016/ht...

I don't know what their actual budget looks like, but I do know that they're huge and have been making significant changes around digital transformation. That would result in high spending followed by later savings.

Makes you want to see how other countries spend their tax take, doesn't it?

Sounds like we need more drilldown into their annual report.

An 11:1 return seems pretty efficient given the nature of their work.

Oddly enough, your rational comment has been downvoted.