Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether it is his policy completely to abolish air passenger duty.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
Air Passenger Duty (APD) remains an important contributor to the public finances.
However, as a key part of this government’s long term economic plan, the Chancellor has taken action on APD.
In 2015-16, over ninety-nine per cent of passengers, including many families, are set to see a freeze or reduction in rates.
Budget 2014 announced a freeze in the rate of APD for short-haul international and domestic flights for a fourth year running. In addition Budget 2014 reforms APD with the abolition of bands C and D from 1 April 2015. This will cut tax for passengers travelling to destinations such as Brazil, India, China, South Asia and the Caribbean.
Autumn Statement 2014 also announced an APD exemption for children under 12 on economy tickets, with effect from 1 May 2015. From the following year, the Government will abolish economy ticket APD for children under 16 altogether. This will save a two child family £26 on economy short-haul flights and £142 on economy long-haul flights, plus adds to Budget 2014’s adult fare savings for families flying economy to destinations like the Caribbean and Australia, taking accumulative savings to £170 and £194 respectively.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to devolve corporation tax to the Northern Ireland Executive.
Answered by David Gauke
Following the 23 December Stormont House Agreement, the Government introduced and published the Corporation Tax (Northern Ireland) Bill on 8 January 2015. The Bill is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-bill-to-devolve-corporation-tax-in-northern-ireland
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will bring forward proposals to prevent immigrants from claiming benefit for children living abroad.
Answered by Priti Patel - Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
Child Benefit and Child Tax Credit are "family benefits" under EU law. As such EEA nationals working in the UK are entitled to claim in respect of children living in other Member States.
The Prime Minister has made clear that we need to change the rules around paying Child Benefit in respect of children who live in other European countries. This requires a change of EU law, so Ministers are pursuing renegotiation of the relevant EU rules with their counterparts in Europe
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate HM Revenue and Customs has made of the value of uncollected tax in Northern Ireland.
Answered by David Gauke
HM Revenue and Customs published its latest tax gap estimates on 16 October 2014 in 'Measuring Tax Gaps' 2014 edition.
In 2012-13 the UK tax gap was estimated at £34 billion, 6.8 per cent of total tax due. We do not break this down by country.
Estimates of the non UK duty paid market for petrol and diesel fuels in Northern Ireland are published on pages 7 and 41-43. The non UK duty paid estimate covers both the illicit market and cross border shopping.
The excise duty losses due to the non-UK duty paid diesel market were £60 million for both 2011-12 and 2012-13. The excise duty losses due to the petrol non-UK duty paid market were £30 million for both 2011-12 and 2012-13.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he next plans to meet (a) representatives of the business community and (b) high street traders in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom
Treasury Ministers do not have any outstanding invitations to meet representatives of the groups specified, but will continue to respond to such requests on their merits, should they be made.
UK Government Ministers do however maintain regular contact with their counterparts in the Northern Ireland Executive on a range of matters of mutual interest, and the views of business leaders in Northern Ireland inform their considerations.