Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the total sum of revenue that it has generated from increases in stamp duty since 2010.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The government has introduced a number of reforms to Stamp Duty Land Tax since 2010, including major reforms to the rates and overall structure of the tax, and the introduction and withdrawal of reliefs. Along with such reforms, a wide range of factors affect revenues from SDLT, including wider economic factors which impact the residential and commercial property markets.
Where changes have been introduced, the estimates of the direct exchequer costs of these measures are available in the OBR’s policy measures database and the HM Treasury Red Book.
http://budgetresponsibility.org.uk/download/policy-measures-database/
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent steps his Department has taken to work with other countries and multilateral institutions on ensuring global tax transparency.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The UK has taken unprecedented action on tax transparency. Thanks to UK leadership, over 100 jurisdictions have now committed to automatically exchange tax information through the Common Reporting Standard. To encourage jurisdictions to commit to tax transparency standards, the UK has supported lists of non-co-operative jurisdictions at both the G20 and EU. The UK supports work in the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes and World Bank to help implement these standards, as well as directly supporting pilot projects to implement the common reporting standard in Ghana, Pakistan, and Nigeria.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department has taken to work with other countries and multilateral institutions on taxing global multinational digital businesses.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Government is committed to making sure multinational enterprises pay their fair share of tax in the UK.
At Autumn Budget 2017, the Government published a position paper on corporate tax and the digital economy. The paper sets out that the Government thinks international corporate tax principles need updating for the digital age to ensure that they reflect the new ways businesses create value.
The Government is also considering this issue at an international level. The UK actively supports and is working with the OECD’s Task Force on the Digital Economy, which is due to produce an interim report in Spring 2018.
The Government is engaging constructively with EU discussions on this issue and agreed Council conclusions with other Member States at the December ECOFIN meeting.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
Whether his Department plans to review the business rates system.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The government undertook the last fundamental review of business rates in 2016 and announced major reforms worth approx. £9bn to businesses by the end of the parliament. At Autumn Budget 2017, the government delivered more support on business rates including businesses’ top priorities to bring forward the switch to CPI indexation, revalue properties more frequently and to address the staircase tax. As a next step, the government is also reviewing the wider taxation of the digital economy. This includes ensuring international corporate tax rules deliver fair results across different businesses and that sellers operating through online marketplaces pay the right amount of VAT.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what effect reducing the top rate of tax from 50 per cent to 45 per cent has had on total tax receipts since 2012.
Answered by Andrew Jones
HMRC does not routinely evaluate the effects of specific policies on tax receipts. The estimated cost of reducing the additional rate of income tax to 45 per cent is available on the government website, Budget 2013, page 66, table 2.2:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/budget-2013-documents
HMRC published a detailed evaluation of the impact of the 50 per cent tax rate on the Exchequer in 2012 ‘The Exchequer effect of the 50 per cent additional rate of income tax’. This report contains more information on the methodology for estimating the impact of the policy, specifically in annex A:
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the total sum of revenue that it has forgone due to the successive freezes to fuel duty since 2011.
Answered by Andrew Jones
Based on the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) published policy costings, we estimate the cumulative loss to the Exchequer from the successive fuel duty freezes from financial year 2011-12 to the current financial year 2017-18 to be around £37.2bn.
The annual impacts on the Exchequer are reported in the table below.
|
|
| 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 |
Exchequer impact (£m) | -2,275 | -3,465 | -4,645 | -5,800 | -6,375 | -6,805 | -7,825 | ||
Past decisions on freezes will also incur future losses to the Exchequer in years beyond 2017-18. The OBR’s costings of previously announced policies currently extend to 2021-22, and the future impact of these announced freezes in fuel duty to that year is estimated to be around £34.2bn.
The future annual impacts are set out in the table below.
|
|
| 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 |
Exchequer impact (£m) | -8,095 | -8,370 | -8,685 | -9,030 | ||
The OBR’s policy costings are available at the following link:
http://budgetresponsibility.org.uk/download/policy-measures-database/
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Making Tax Digital programme, what advice and help the Government is providing to small and medium-sized businesses required to comply with that programme’s requirements.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Government announced on 13 July, changes to the Making Tax Digital (MTD) legislation to be included in the next Finance Bill. Only businesses with turnover above the VAT threshold will be mandated to use MTD from April 2019 and then only to meet VAT obligations. Further details are available in the Written Statement that was issued on 13 July. Link below:
The government is fully committed to supporting businesses in making a successful transition to MTD. HMRC has already begun piloting MTD services and will continue to do so, testing the system extensively.