Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the threshold for business rates relief in line with inflation.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) is available to businesses with a single property below a set rateable value.
At Autumn Statement 2023, the government announced a package of changes and tax cuts worth £4.3 billion, including a freeze to the small business multiplier for the fourth consecutive year in 2024-25, protecting over a million ratepayers from a multiplier increase.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of including agricultural contractors' buildings in the list of buildings exempted from business rates.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Farmland and buildings solely used for agriculture are exempt from business rates. The Government keeps all taxes under review. Any future decisions regarding the tax system will be taken in line with the normal Budget process.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will add agricultural contractors' buildings to the list of buildings exempted from business rates.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Farmland and buildings solely used for agriculture are exempt from business rates. The Government keeps all taxes under review. Any future decisions regarding the tax system will be taken in line with the normal Budget process.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many enquires were initiated by HM Revenue and Customs Customer Compliance Group in each of the last ten years for which figures are available.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Compliance checks form one element of HMRC’s broader compliance approach which is increasingly focused on making it easier for customers to get their tax right first time and hard to get it wrong, by investing in its digital systems, simplifying its policies and processes, and improving guidance and support to improve compliance.
The number of compliance checks opened is only one indicator of compliance performance in any year and is not a reliable indicator of compliance activity undertaken or compliance performance when viewed in isolation.
The number of compliance checks opened was not routinely reported prior to 2019-20. From 2020 to 2021, all numbers have been published in the HMRC quarterly performance update here.
Compliance checks may span many years and may range from light-touch single risk checks to complex, multiple risk compliance checks. A compliance check is opened when a risk is opened in a given tax year for a given tax regime.
The number of compliance checks opened and closed by HMRC compliance staff each year will be determined by the risk landscape, its strategic priorities and ministerial commitments.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an estimate of potential trends in the level of inward investment due to British companies re-shoring their manufacturing in the next 12 months.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK maintains its strong position on attracting greenfield FDI, leading in Europe and third only to the US and China globally. EY’s 2023 FDI survey reported 65% of respondents planning to invest in the UK in the following 12 months, a record high.
A specific assessment around re-shoring cannot be made. The available data concerning inward investment does not distinguish reshoring from other forms of domestic investment.
Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential long-term financial implications of implementing the full compensation scheme for infected blood victims.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
This was an appalling tragedy and my thoughts remain with all those affected. We understand the strength of feeling on this and the need for action and that is why the Government has accepted the moral case for compensation and acknowledged that justice needs to be delivered for the victims.
The Government is working as quickly as possible to consider all the Infected Blood Inquiry’s recommendations with the thoroughness merited by this terrible injustice, to ensure that we are best placed to respond to the Inquiry’s final report once it is published in May.
Asked by: Geoffrey Cox (Conservative - Torridge and West Devon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish guidance on the tax regime for furnished holiday lets after April 2025.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government will publish draft legislation, explanatory notes, and a tax information and impacts note in due course. These will set out how the announced changes will apply in practice.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of removing VAT on defibrillators on their (a) affordability and (b) accessibility.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government maintains VAT reliefs to aid the purchase of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs), including VAT relief on purchases made by local authorities and those made through voluntary contributions, where the AED is donated to eligible charities or the NHS. Otherwise, they attract the standard rate of VAT.
The Government is currently inviting community organisations to bid for funding as part of a £1 million grant scheme that expands access to AEDs, particularly in public places where they are most needed. In addition, last year the Government committed to supplying state-funded schools in England with defibrillators to make sure there is a device in device in every school, with deliveries completed in June 2023. This means that every state-funded school in England, over 21,500 schools, now has access to an AED.
The Government keeps all taxes under review.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps HM Revenue and Customs has taken to improve tax compliance yield.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK tax gap is currently low and stable, falling from 7.5 per cent in 2005 to 2006 to 4.8 per cent in 2021 to 2022.
In 2022 to 2023, compliance action from HMRC secured and protected £34 billion for public services that would otherwise have gone unpaid. 2023 to 2024 compliance yield figures indicate that they are on track to exceed last year’s performance.
HMRC is making it easier for customers to get it right first time and hard to get wrong by investing in digital systems, simplifying policies and processes, and improving guidance and support to improve compliance.
Since 2010, the Government has also introduced over 200 new measures to tackle many different forms of non-compliance. Most recently, at Spring Budget 2024, the government announced a new package of measures to tackle the tax gap, which will raise over £4.5 billion over the next five years.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimates his Department has made of the number of claimants who are receiving tax credits with savings above £16,000 that will no longer be entitled to Universal Credit.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
No estimate has been made of the number of those receiving tax credits with savings above £16,000 that will no longer be entitled to Universal Credit.
Tax credits recipients are not required to report savings in order to claim tax credits.