Eight ways that the taxman is spying on you

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rom scouring your bank and social media accounts and using AI to trawl through your data to simply paying informants, HM Revenue & Customs is finding new and effective ways to keep track of taxpayers.

The tax office has revealed that it is using artificial intelligence software to monitor the social media of suspected tax dodgers — but it isn’t only potential criminals who are being monitored. And with the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, directing HMRC officials to recoup £7.5 billion in unpaid tax a year by 2029, the spying is likely to increase. Here are eight ways you could be under surveillance — without realising it.

Supercomputing

At the heart of HMRC’s spying capabilities is the taxman’s Connect software, introduced in 2010. It analyses data from more than 30 sources and uses AI to build a digital profile of taxpayers.