Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether for tax purposes there is any distinction between payments made to farmers under (1) the EU Basic Payment Scheme, (2) the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, and (3) the Environmental Land Management system.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
There is no distinction for tax purposes between payments made under the three listed schemes. It is necessary to analyse the purpose and function of any government grant in order to form a view as to how it is likely to be treated for tax purposes. The tax treatment of a payment under any relevant scheme will depend on whether it is a trading receipt, whether it is capital or revenue in nature, and how it is recognised in the accounts of the farmer’s business.
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Agnew of Oulton on 20 May (HL4033), what has been the net income to HM Treasury from VAT in each month since March.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
HM Revenue & Customs publish monthly net VAT receipts within the National Statistics release “HMRC tax receipts and National Insurance contributions for the UK”. Since March 2020, HM Revenue & Customs have received the following net VAT monthly amounts:
March 2020: £2,362 million
April 2020: -£897 million
May 2020: -£635 million
June 2020: £1,104 million
Net VAT receipts during this period have been affected by the policy measure providing a deferral of VAT payments. This measure allowed UK VAT registered traders to defer VAT payments between 20 March 2020 and 30 June 2020, up until 31 March 2021.
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many taxpayers there were with a gross taxable income (1) over £5,000,000, (2) £1,000,000–£4,999,999, (3) £750,000–£999,999, (4) £500,000–£749,999, (5) £250,000–£499,999, (6) £150,000–£249,999, (7) £100,000–£149,999, (8) £75,000–£99,999, (9) £50,000–£74,999, (10) £30,000–£49,999,and (11) under £30,000, during the 2018–19 financial year.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The table below contains estimates of UK taxpayer numbers grouped into gross taxable income bands for the 2018-19 financial year:
Taxpayers by range of total taxable income, 2018-19 | |
Range of total income | Number of taxpayers |
£11,850 (a) | 19,500 |
£30,000 | 7,960 |
£50,000 | 2,430 |
£75,000 | 789 |
£100,000 | 569 |
£150,000 | 260 |
£250,000 | 125 |
£500,000 | 27 |
£750,000 | 12 |
£1 million | 18 |
£5 million | 1 |
Total (b) | 31,700 |
(a) Can include some taxpayers who are not entitled to any/a full Personal Allowance whose total income can be less than the Personal Allowance.
(b) Total may not sum exactly due to rounding.
In addition to the requested information, the estimated number of income tax payers by total income for 2018-19 are published on page 34 of the HMRC UK Income Tax Liability Statistics bulletin.
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what has been the net income to HM Treasury from VAT in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Monthly Net VAT receipts for the period April 2019 to March 2020 are as follows:
Month | Net VAT (£millions) |
April 2019 | 13,041 |
May 2019 | 10,994 |
June 2019 | 8,118 |
July 2019 | 13,640 |
August 2019 | 12,446 |
September 2019 | 8,254 |
October 2019 | 13,578 |
November 2019 | 13,031 |
December 2019 | 7,622 |
January 2020 | 14,476 |
February 2020 | 12,585 |
March 2020 | 2,352 |
Net VAT is the total of Home VAT and Import VAT. Figures are given to the nearest £1 million.
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what (1) advice is available, and (2) guidance has been given by HMRC, to VAT-registered businesses on how to implement the changes in VAT reporting obligations that will come into force on 1 April 2019.
Answered by Lord Bates
In July, HMRC published a package of resources on GOV.UK, including a VAT Notice providing guidance on the requirements of MTD for VAT. This provides comprehensive advice for businesses and agents. HMRC’s ‘Help and support for Making Tax Digital’ page on GOV.UK brings all of HMRC’s digital support products for MTD together.
HMRC is also writing to all businesses expected to be mandated, to ensure they are aware of their new obligations.
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much they spent on (1) defence, and (2) international aid, in each of the last five years; and and in each case what that spending represented as a proportion of GDP for each such year.
Answered by Lord Bates
Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2018’ is an annual HM Treasury publication on public spending. It is due to be released on 19 July 2018. The collection can be found at the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/public-expenditure-statistical-analyses-pesa
Table 5.2 will include the latest information on public sector service spend on all functions of government on a consistent and comparable basis. This presentation follows the UN defined Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG). This split includes defence and foreign economic aid expenditure for each of the last five years. GDP figures will also be available in annex F of the same publication.
It is important to note defence and foreign economic aid are also evaluated against alternative internationally agreed classifications.
Official Development Assistance (ODA) is the internationally-agreed classification of foreign aid financing and is measured in accordance with international standards agreed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The UN COFOG measure of Foreign economic aid presented in this table is quite different from the UK ODA measure and therefore not comparable. For example the UK ODA measure include financial transactions such a loans, whereas the UN COFOG measure does not. Also, the UK ODA analysis is on a calendar year rather than financial year basis. A link to the latest ODA releases is provided here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-on-international-development
The 2015 Spending Review continued the commitment to meet the NATO investment pledge to spend 2% of GDP on Defence for the rest of this decade. This is evaluated using the NATO definitions of Defence spending rather than the UN COFOG definitions that are used in this table. The UN COFOG and NATO measures of Defence use different definitions and are therefore not comparable. For example, the NATO Defence figures include pensions whereas in COFOG these are included in Social Protection. Details and figures on NATO Defence expenditures can be found at the following link:
https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/pdf_2017_06/20170629_170629-pr2017-111-en.pdf
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the threshold for VAT registration in each member state of the EU.
Answered by Lord Bates
The latest published statistics show that in the last year for which figures are available (2016-17), there were approximately 2,309,000 VAT registered businesses. Of these, approximately 1,179,000 were registered above the VAT threshold, and approximately 1,130,000 were registered below the VAT threshold.
The Office of Tax Simplification noted in their review of VAT published last year that the current design of the VAT threshold may be dis-incentivising small businesses from growing. The Chancellor at Autumn Budget recognised these concerns about the cliff edge nature of the threshold, but also noted that the threshold has the benefit of keeping the majority of UK businesses out of VAT altogether, and was therefore not minded to reduce the threshold, but would consult on whether its design could better incentivise growth.
The Government therefore launched a call for evidence to explore how the threshold could better incentivise growth at Spring Statement. This call for evidence closed on 5 June, and the Government will respond later this year. In the meantime, the threshold will remain at £85,000 for two years from April 2018.
The European Commission publishes details of VAT registration thresholds in the Member States. Their latest edition (April 2018) can be found on their website.
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to change the £85,000 VAT threshold.
Answered by Lord Bates
The latest published statistics show that in the last year for which figures are available (2016-17), there were approximately 2,309,000 VAT registered businesses. Of these, approximately 1,179,000 were registered above the VAT threshold, and approximately 1,130,000 were registered below the VAT threshold.
The Office of Tax Simplification noted in their review of VAT published last year that the current design of the VAT threshold may be dis-incentivising small businesses from growing. The Chancellor at Autumn Budget recognised these concerns about the cliff edge nature of the threshold, but also noted that the threshold has the benefit of keeping the majority of UK businesses out of VAT altogether, and was therefore not minded to reduce the threshold, but would consult on whether its design could better incentivise growth.
The Government therefore launched a call for evidence to explore how the threshold could better incentivise growth at Spring Statement. This call for evidence closed on 5 June, and the Government will respond later this year. In the meantime, the threshold will remain at £85,000 for two years from April 2018.
The European Commission publishes details of VAT registration thresholds in the Member States. Their latest edition (April 2018) can be found on their website.
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many businesses in the UK are registered as (1) above the VAT threshold, and (2) below the VAT threshold.
Answered by Lord Bates
The latest published statistics show that in the last year for which figures are available (2016-17), there were approximately 2,309,000 VAT registered businesses. Of these, approximately 1,179,000 were registered above the VAT threshold, and approximately 1,130,000 were registered below the VAT threshold.
The Office of Tax Simplification noted in their review of VAT published last year that the current design of the VAT threshold may be dis-incentivising small businesses from growing. The Chancellor at Autumn Budget recognised these concerns about the cliff edge nature of the threshold, but also noted that the threshold has the benefit of keeping the majority of UK businesses out of VAT altogether, and was therefore not minded to reduce the threshold, but would consult on whether its design could better incentivise growth.
The Government therefore launched a call for evidence to explore how the threshold could better incentivise growth at Spring Statement. This call for evidence closed on 5 June, and the Government will respond later this year. In the meantime, the threshold will remain at £85,000 for two years from April 2018.
The European Commission publishes details of VAT registration thresholds in the Member States. Their latest edition (April 2018) can be found on their website.
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the total annual revenue from taxation of motor vehicles; and what proportion of this is currently hypothecated for the Highways Agency.
Answered by Lord Bates
The latest year available for a combined total annual revenue from taxation of motor vehicles is 2014/15. The total revenue in this year was £37bn.
Revenues from motoring taxes are used by the Exchequer to fund public services, and are currently not hypothecated for the Highways Agency. However, as announced at Summer Budget 2015, revenues from Vehicle Excise Duty in England will be hypothecated to a National Roads Fund from 2021.