Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of legal sale mileage blockers on the proposed pence-per-mile charge of 3p per mile in addition to the standard Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) starting in April 2028.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
As announced at Budget 2025, the Government is introducing Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) from April 2028, a new mileage charge for electric and plug-in hybrid cars, recognising that electric vehicles (EVs) contribute to congestion and wear and tear on the roads but pay no equivalent to fuel duty.
The Government is considering options to mitigate against odometer tampering, including whether any legislative, regulatory or technical changes are necessary to strengthen compliance and enforcement. The Government intends to engage with manufacturers, the leasing industry and insurers to minimise fraud.
The eVED consultation provides further detail on how eVED will work and seeks views on its implementation, including the approach to compliance. The consultation is available at GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-the-introduction-of-electric-vehicle-excise-duty-eved.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of delaying business rates revaluations for hospitality businesses.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The amount of business rates paid on each property is based on the Rateable Value of the property, assessed by the Valuation Office Agency, and the multiplier values, which are set by the Government. Rateable values are re-assessed every three years.
Revaluations ensure that the rateable values of properties remain in line with market changes, and that the tax rates adjust to reflect changes in the tax base.
The next revaluation will take effect from 1 April 2026 based on values from 1 April 2024.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to improve decision making times at the Valuation Office Agency.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The VOA is meeting the majority of its performance targets. In the areas where it isn’t, it has robust service recovery plans in place. These include moving staff to where there is the greatest customer demand and upskilling its workforce in a wider range of casework, to ensure greater flexibility. It continues to prioritise any cases where a customer is facing financial hardship.
The VOA reports monthly on performance to the HMRC Executive Committee and Board. The decision to move the VOA’s functions into HMRC next year will strengthen direct accountability to ministers.
Integration is being carefully managed by a joint HMRC and VOA team, with detailed transition plans in place and appropriate oversight from my department.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on reforms to the tax and benefits system for young people in supported accommodation.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Chancellor regularly engages with Cabinet colleagues across a wide range of policy issues including tax and welfare.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of raising the VAT registration threshold from £90,000; and whether she plans to conduct a review of the impact of current thresholds on SMEs.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
With a VAT registration threshold of £90,000, the UK’s threshold is higher than any EU country and the joint highest in the OECD. This means the majority of UK businesses are kept out of the VAT system.
The Government’s approach to the VAT threshold aims to balance potential impacts on small businesses, including their growth and financial sustainability, the economy as a whole, and tax revenues. Tax breaks reduce the revenue available for public services and must represent value for money for the taxpayer.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of keeping the personal allowance at £12,570 on pensioners’ tax liability.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to making sure older people can live with the dignity and respect they deserve in retirement. The State Pension is the foundation of the support available to them. Over the course of this Parliament, the yearly amount of the full new State Pension is currently projected to go up by around £1,900 based on the Office for Budget Responsibility's latest forecast.
The Personal Allowance - the amount an individual can earn before paying tax - will continue to exceed the basic and full new State Pension in 2025/26. This means pensioners whose sole income is the full new State Pension or basic State Pension without any increments will not pay any income tax.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what (a) guidance, (b) funding, (c) accounting assistance and (d) other support her Department is providing to small businesses that become VAT-registered.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC provides extensive guidance on GOV.UK to support VAT registered businesses including essentials that every business needs, up to more complex areas. Additional individual support is available from their helplines. HMRC has published an online VAT Registration Estimator for businesses approaching VAT registration. This helps them understand their basic obligations, work out what their liability may be should they need to register, and provides links to relevant guidance.
There are schemes available to small businesses to support their cash flow and simplify the requirements for accounting for VAT. This includes the annual accounting scheme and cash accounting scheme, available for businesses with a turnover up to £1.6m. The Flat Rate Scheme is also available for those with a turnover up to £230k. This simplifies the calculation of VAT liability by applying a sector-specific percentage to sales, rather than recording VAT on each transaction.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will hold discussions with HMRC on the difference between the loan charge settlement terms offered to (a) large companies and (b) other people.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government commissioned an independent review of the loan charge to help bring the matter to a close for those affected whilst ensuring fairness for all taxpayers. The Government will respond by Autumn Budget 2025.
HMRC applies the law fairly and consistently in accordance with its published Litigation and Settlement Strategy (LSS). This ensures every taxpayer, no matter who they are, pays the tax due under the law.
Central to the LSS is that HMRC will not settle a dispute by agreement for an amount which is less than it would reasonably expect to obtain from litigation.
HMRC’s Litigation and Settlement strategy can be found on gov.uk: www.gov.uk/government/publications/litigation-and-settlement-strategy-lss
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of the tax-free childcare system on levels of administration for early years providers.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
HMRC continually assesses the administrative impact of Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) on childcare providers, including those focused on early years provision, via customer feedback and internal system reviews. For many providers, once they have registered for TFC they will receive TFC payments made by parents directly into their bank account, just as they would when receiving non-TFC payments.In 2024, HMRC improved the administration for childcare providers by streamlining the TFC registration process and introducing a mechanism for TFC payments to be made via external payment providers used by some childcare providers. These changes are designed to improve the registration and payment functions of TFC, making the service more user friendly, efficient and accessible.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of recent changes to stamp duty thresholds on the number of first time buyers entering the property market.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Recent changes to stamp duty thresholds on 1 April 2025 were the result of policy introduced by the previous government. HMRC analysis estimates that there will be 4,000-6,000 fewer first-time buyer transactions per year between 2025/26-2029/30 as a result.
At Budget 2024, the Government increased the higher rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) for additional dwellings by two percentage points from 3% to 5%. This measure will help to ensure that those looking to move home, or purchase their first property, have a greater advantage over second home buyers, landlords, and companies purchasing residential property. The OBR certified costing estimates that increasing the higher rates of SDLT by two percentage points is expected to result in 130,000 additional transactions over the next five years by first-time buyers and other people buying a primary residence.