Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate his Department has made of the impact of ending tax-free shopping for international visitors on tax revenues since 2020.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The OBR published a review of the original 2020 costing of the withdrawal of tax-free shopping in the Economic and Fiscal Outlook on 6 March, with a follow up supplementary document published on 11 March, which is available here: https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/VAT-RES-costing-review.pdf
The government published its next steps on tax-free shopping in the Spring Budget 2024 which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spring-budget-2024/spring-budget-2024-html.
The government welcomes further submissions in response to the OBR’s findings.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has had recent discussions with airports in Scotland on the potential merits of reinstating tax-free shopping for international visitors.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.
Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel
The government published its next steps on tax-free shopping in the Spring Budget 2024 which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spring-budget-2024/spring-budget-2024-html.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has had recent discussions with airports on the potential merits of reinstating tax-free shopping for international visitors.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.
Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel
The government published its next steps on tax-free shopping in the Spring Budget 2024 which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spring-budget-2024/spring-budget-2024-html.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the funding allocation for HM Revenue and Customs in financial year 2024-25.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The government regularly reviews the levels of funding provided to HMRC. The 2021 Spending Review settlement gave HMRC a £0.9bn cash increase over Parliament, from £4.3bn in 2019/20 to £5.2bn in 2024/25.
Additional funding was also provided to HMRC at the recent Budget to ensure the department is able to collect the taxes that are due.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 29 February 2024 to Question 15683 on National Insurance: Foster Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of topping-up the National Insurance contributions of foster carers who were unable to work due to the rules that were in place before 2003.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Between 2003 and 2010, foster carers could claim Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) to protect their National Insurance record. Foster carers who did not claim HRP at the time can make a retrospective claim now – guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/home-responsibilities-protection-hrp
There are no plans to extend this period to allow foster carers to claim HRP before 6 April 2003.
For periods prior to 2003, foster carers could have paid voluntary NICs to protect their National Insurance (NI) record subject to the normal time limits. Time limits for voluntary NICs are an important feature of the NI system, which operates on a pay as you go basis; the National Insurance contributions (NICs) paid now are used to fund today’s contributory benefits.
There are no plans to allow foster carers to pay voluntary NICs for periods before 2003 to top up their NI records, outside of the existing rules for voluntary NICs. This maintains fairness for other individuals who have paid voluntary NICs within the required time limits.
At Spring Budget 2023, the government increased the amount of income tax relief available to foster carers and shared lives carers. The threshold of income at which qualifying carers begin paying tax on care income was increased to £18,140 per year plus £375 to £450 per person cared for per week for 2023-24 (the weekly amount range is based on age of the child or adult under care). Both the threshold and weekly amounts will then be index-linked from 2024-25 onwards, representing a tax cut worth approximately £450 per year on average
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of publishing the written responses to its consultation entitled Tackling disguised remuneration, which closed on 5 October 2016.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Government published a technical note and summary of responses to the Tackling Disguised Remuneration consultation on 5 December 2016: Tackling disguised remuneration. Technical note and summary of responses
The Government does not routinely publish individual consultation responses.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to top up national insurance contributions for individuals who received foster care allowances but were not allowed to work while fostering.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Foster carers can claim National Insurance (NI) credits known as ‘Credits for Parents and Carers’ (CPC) which count towards their State Pension. If a foster carer is unable to work due to their caring responsibilities, claiming CPC will prevent any gaps in their NI record as a result for State Pension purposes.
CPC can be claimed for periods from 6 April 2010 onwards and replaced Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) which foster carers can claim for periods between 2003 – 2010.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the compatibility of the issuing of section 684 notices by HMRC with the recommendations of the independent loan charge review led by Sir Amyas Morse.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Loan Charge is targeted at contrived tax avoidance schemes that sought to avoid Income Tax and National Insurance contributions by paying users their income in the form of loans.
In his independent review, Lord Morse recommended that the Loan Charge no longer apply to loans made before 9 December 2010. However, Lord Morse said “HMRC should continue being able to settle and investigate cases prior to this point under their normal powers where they have appropriate grounds, and a legal basis, to do so”. The government accepted this recommendation. In line with this recommendation, HMRC is still seeking to recover the tax due where it had taken the necessary steps in the past to give it the legal basis to do so.
In May 2022, the Court of Appeal said that HMRC could consider using certain provisions in the PAYE system (referred to as ‘section 684(7A)(b)’) to collect tax directly from the individual who received income through a DR scheme. HMRC using these provisions where appropriate is in line with Lord Morse’s recommendation.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reducing VAT on (a) catering and (b) takeaway hot food.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Government currently has no plans to change the VAT treatment of either catering or takeaway hot food.
Supplies in the course of catering include hot takeaway food for consumption off premises and food that is for consumption on the premises on which it is supplied (‘eat in’). These supplies of food are taxable at 20 per cent, the standard rate of VAT.
VAT has been designed as a broad-based tax on consumption, and the twenty per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. Going further would impose additional pressure on the public finances to which VAT makes a significant contribution.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has had discussions with the Financial Ombudsman Service on the threshold for exceptional circumstances when considering cases after the six month time limit.
Answered by Bim Afolami
The Financial Ombudsman Services (FOS) is an independent public body set up by Parliament to resolve complaints between financial services firms and their customers. The rules on how the FOS should handle complaints, including time limits, are determined by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and set out in the FCA Handbook.
The FCA rules state that the FOS cannot consider a complaint if the complainant refers it to the FOS more than six months after the complainant has received a final response letter from the firm who is subject to the complaint, unless the failure to raise a complaint within the time limit was a result of exceptional circumstances. Decisions on whether a particular situation constitutes exceptional circumstances are made by the FOS on a case-by-case basis, but may include where a period of serious ill health has prevented a complaint from being made. The FOS provides a number of case studies on its website, illustrating circumstances in which a consumer's failure to complain within the six month time limit was (or was not) considered to be as a result of exceptional circumstances. This can be found at the following address: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/expect/time-limits