Asked by: Lord Christopher (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what changes have been made in the last five years to the rules on the distinctions for income tax purposes between employment and self-employment.
Answered by Lord Deighton
The Government have not made any changes to the rules on the distinctions for income tax purposes between employment and self-employment in the last five years.
However the Government has taken action to address false self-employment both through intermediaries and limited liability partnerships (LLP), making changes that mean that a salaried member of an LLP will be treated as an employee for income tax.
Asked by: Lord Christopher (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many visits were made to employers in each year from 2010 to 2013 and in the first nine months of 2014 to check that the minimum wage was being properly paid; and what were the results of those checks in each of those years.
Answered by Lord Deighton
The Government takes the enforcement of National Minimum Wage very seriously and has increased the financial penalty percentage from 50% to 100% of the unpaid wages owed to workers, and the maximum penalty from £5,000 to £20,000. These new limits are now in force where arrears are identified in pay reference periods on or after 7 March 2014. The Government will also bring in primary legislation as soon as possible so that the maximum £20,000 penalty can apply to each underpaid worker.
HMRC reviews every complaint that is referred to it, investigating the complaint and, in addition, carrying out targeted enforcement where we identify a high risk of non-payment of NMW.
HMRC record completed investigations but these do not include details of the numbers of visits. Some investigations may require several visits and others may be completed without any. HMRC completed 1455 investigations last year identifying record arrears of over £4.6 million. Full details for 2010 to 2014 are contained in the table below. We do not typically disclose results mid-way through a year; this is because the results have not been internally verified.
Year | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 |
Arrears | £3,818,396 | £3,582,685 | £3,974,008 | £4,645,547 |
Investigations | 2,904 | 2,534 | 1,693 | 1,455 |
Cases with arrears | 1,140 | 968 | 736 | 680 |
Asked by: Lord Christopher (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to publish impact and risk assessments on the devolution of corporation tax to Northern Ireland.
Answered by Lord Deighton
At Autumn Statement, the Government set out that it recognises the strongly held arguments for devolving corporation tax rate-setting powers to Northern Ireland, including its land border with the very low corporation tax environment in the Republic of Ireland, and the shared goal of the UK Government and the Northern Ireland Executive of rebalancing the Northern Ireland economy and securing the peaceful economic progress made since the Good Friday Agreement. Work by HMRC and HM Treasury has concluded that this proposal could be implemented provided that the Northern Ireland Executive is able to manage the financial implications. If this legislation is introduced, a Tax Information and Impact Note will be published alongside the Bill as part of the usual legislative process.
Asked by: Lord Christopher (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effect of the changes in the rate of the stamp duty on the prices of houses worth less than £1 million.
Answered by Lord Deighton
The reform to Stamp Duty Land Tax on residential properties will have a limited impact on house prices overall and this effect will be small compared to overall fluctuations in house prices.
Asked by: Lord Christopher (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the increases in income tax personal allowance have had an impact on the data on income levels available to them; and if so, what action they intend to take as a result.
Answered by Lord Deighton
Increases to the amount of income tax personal allowance do not affect the amount of income data available to HM Revenue and Customs.
Asked by: Lord Christopher (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the latest recorded (1) numbers of self-employed, (2) numbers of self-employed recorded in income tax records, and (3) annual turnover of self-employed in income tax records.
Answered by Lord Deighton
The number of individuals filing a self-employment schedule in their Self Assessment tax returns for the year 2011-12 is estimated at 5.49 million.
The annual turnover of these individuals in 2011-12 is estimated at £296 billion.
These estimates are based on the Survey of Personal Incomes (SPI) for the year 2011-12.
Further information about the self-employed is available in HMRC’s National Statistics Publications[1].
[1] Available at the following internet address: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/personal-income-by-tax-year
Asked by: Lord Christopher (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what were the total National Insurance Contribution receipts paid to the National Health Service in each of the last five years to April 2014; and what proportion of the total National Insurance Contributions receipts those totals represented.
Answered by Lord Deighton
The table below shows total NICs receipts and NHS allocation to 2012-13.
Tax Year | Total NICs receipts (bn) | NHS allocation (bn) | NHS allocation as proportion of total NICs receipts |
2009-10 | £95.5 | £20.8 | 21.8% |
2010-11 | £96.5 | £20.9 | 21.7% |
2011-12 | £101.6 | £21.1 | 20.8% |
2012-13 | £102 | £21.0 | 20.6% |
Total National Insurance contributions receipts for the years up to 2013-14 can be found in the statistical publication HMRC tax and NICs receipts for the UK available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk.
The NHS allocation from 2009-10 to 2012-13 is set out in in the National Insurance Fund Accounts available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-fund-accounts. Accounts for 2013-14 will be available in due course.
Asked by: Lord Christopher (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they make public how National Insurance contributions are distributed and to which expenditure; and, if so, how National Insurance contributions are dispersed.
Answered by Lord Deighton
The destination of National Insurance contributions (NICs) is set out in Section 162 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 and Section 142 of the Social Security (Northern Ireland) Administration Act 1992. NICs are paid into the National Insurance Funds (NIF) after deducting the appropriate NHS allocation. Contributory benefits are paid out of the Funds and the amounts are published in the National Insurance Fund Accounts[1].
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-fund-accounts
Asked by: Lord Christopher (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many self-employed workers were registered with HM Revenue and Customs at the end of each financial year since 2010–11.
Answered by Lord Deighton
Estimates for the number of individuals with self employment sources are published in HMRC's National Statistics Table 3.10[1]. These estimates are based on the Survey of Personal Incomes for which 2011-12 is the latest available year.
Asked by: Lord Christopher (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much is raised annually from National Insurance contributions.
Answered by Lord Deighton
Information on monthly and annual receipts of National Insurance contributions is published in table HM Revenue and Customs Receipts on the GOV.UK website.
A link to the most recent publication is given below.