Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to abolish non-domiciled tax status.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government wants the UK to be a destination that will attract talented people to work and to do business. Having a tax system that is internationally competitive brings in talent and investment which contributes to the growth of the economy.
Non-doms play an important role in funding our public services through their tax contributions, and in the tax year ending 2021 non-domiciled taxpayers were liable to pay £7,896 million in UK Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax and National Insurance Contributions.
The Government keeps all tax policy under review.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has mad an assessment of the potential merits of introducing new taxes on wealth.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government has no plans to introduce new taxes on wealth. The Government keeps all tax policy under review.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much tax revenue his Department expects to collect in the next 12 months as a result of the tax cuts announced in the Government's economic proposals on 23 September 2022.
Answered by Richard Fuller
HM Treasury does not publish forecasts of the economy or the public finances. Forecasts of future receipts are produced by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) as part of their Economic and Fiscal Outlook.
The OBR will publish the next economic and fiscal forecast on 31 October. This will assess the fiscal impact of the Chancellor’s medium-term fiscal plan and previously announced measures.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of repealing the High Income Child Benefit Tax Charge.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is committed to managing the public finances in a disciplined and responsible way.
Restricting Child Benefit for those on higher incomes ensures that the Government supports the majority of families whilst keeping welfare expenditure sustainable. As with all elements of tax policy, the Government keeps this under review.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has had recent discussions with mortgage lenders on (a) reducing the cost of borrowing and (b) ensuring that mortgage approvals remain at a steady rate.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Chancellor and I are in regular contact with mortgage lenders on all aspects of their mortgage lending to understand their position and current lending conditions, including most recently at the Chancellor’s roundtable with retail and challenger banks on 6 October.
Ultimately, the pricing, availability and approval of loans remains a commercial decision for lenders in which the Government does not seek to intervene.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to reduce the level of VAT charged on hot meals served at food outlets.
Answered by Richard Fuller
The VAT reduced rate for the hospitality sector was a temporary measure designed to support the cash flow and viability of sectors that have been severely affected by COVID-19. It was appropriate that as restrictions were lifted and demand for goods and services in these sectors increased, the temporary tax reliefs were first reduced and then removed in order to rebuild and strengthen the public finances.
According to OBR forecasts, VAT will have raised approximately £135 billion in 2021-22, helping to fund key spending priorities such as important public services, including the NHS and policing. In addition, this request should be viewed in the context of over £50 billion of requests for relief from VAT received since the EU referendum.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason he removed the Additional Rate of Income Tax.
Answered by Richard Fuller
The Government is committed to lowering the tax burden and growing the economy, but has decided not to abolish the Additional Rate of income tax in 2023.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to ensure that financial institutions providing savings accounts to consumers reflect changes in the Bank of England's base rate of inflation in their financial products.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The pricing of financial products, including interest rates offered on savings accounts, is a commercial decision for firms and the Government does not seek to intervene in such decisions.
The independent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of England makes monetary policy decisions independently of the Government. Therefore, the Government does not comment on the conduct or effectiveness of monetary policy. The MPC sets the base rate of interest, which is known as the Bank Rate. This is the rate of interest the Bank of England will pay on reserves held with them by commercial banks. MPC decisions over the Bank Rate guide commercial banks’ decisions over retail interest rates, i.e. interest rates they charge on loans and pay on deposits. However, savings providers also make commercial judgements that influence the degree of pass‐through from changes in the Bank Rate into retail interest rates, with conditions in financial markets and in the banking sector also influencing interest rates paid on deposits or charged for lending.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to tackle changes in the value of Pound Sterling against the United States Dollar; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The UK does not have an exchange rate target and the Government does not have a desired level for sterling – the price is determined by the market. The UK's macroeconomic framework is based on an inflation target, and it is for the independent Monetary Policy Committee to set monetary policy to meet this target.
We continue to work closely with the Bank of England, Financial Conduct Authority, Debt Management Office and others to monitor markets.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the context of the rising cost of electricity, if he will make it his policy to increase the HMRC advisory electricity rate for electric car business mileage.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government introduced the Advisory Electric Rate (AER) in 2018. It applies to employees who use a fully electric vehicle as a company car.
The Advisory Electric Rate (AER) was changed in December 2021 from 4 pence per mile (ppm) to 5ppm. This was calculated using published consumption rates, adjusted to reflect real driving conditions, and the average cost of electricity.
However, employers are not required to use the AER. Instead, they can use different rates to reflect their employees’ circumstances. Provided they can show that the bespoke rates do not result in a profit for the employee, there will be no tax to pay. Otherwise, when employers reimburse employees at a higher rate than the published AER (5ppm), the excess is subject to Income Tax and NICs.
The Government keeps this policy under review.