Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of exempting volunteer drivers from HMRC mileage rates for travel over 10,000 miles.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Volunteer drivers who are reimbursed for their reasonable out of pocket expenses are not liable for Income Tax or National Insurance contributions (NICs). HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) accept that generally, allowances paid to volunteer drivers do no more than reimburse them for their actual expenses. Tax is only paid on any allowances received which exceed expenses and result in a profit.
In order to support the voluntary sector, the Government allows voluntary organisations to make payments under the Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAPs) scheme to their volunteer drivers. The current AMAPs rate for cars and vans is 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles and 25p per mile for each subsequent mile. The Passenger Payment is 5p per mile. The rates are set by Parliament and are reviewed regularly.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Valuation Office Agency takes to confirm that furnished holiday lets that are registered for business rates meet the requirement for the property to be available for letting for at least 140 days a year.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The VOA uses information provided by the taxpayer to show their intention to let for 140 days. The VOA issues questionnaires to new properties, and where necessary, carries out online searches. Following this, the VOA issues requests for rental information on a targeted basis.
On 23 March, the Government announced that it will legislate to change the criteria determining whether a holiday let is valued for business rates to account for actual days the property was rented. This will ensure that owners of properties cannot reduce their tax liability by declaring that a property is available for let while making little or no actual effort to do so. Further details of the change and implementation will be included in the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government’s (MHCLG) response to the consultation on the business rates treatment of self-catering accommodation which will be published shortly.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much revenue has accrued to the public purse from higher rate additional dwelling stamp duty land tax in (a) England and (b) the North West Norfolk constituency broken down by (i) total amount and (ii) the 3 per cent surcharge proportion in each year since 2016.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The information requested has been published on a financial year basis up to the end of 2019-20 as part of HM Revenue and Customs ‘UK Stamp Statistics’ report: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-stamp-tax-statistics. Data for 2020-21 will not be available until late Autumn 2021.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if HM Revenue and Customs will publish guidance on whether recreational boaters will be liable to pay (a) VAT and (b) import duty in the event that their boat is outside the UK on 31 December 2020 and subsequently brought back to the UK.
Answered by Jesse Norman
HMRC will publish updated guidance before the end of transition period on customs and VAT provisions pertaining to recreational boaters. The guidance will include conditions under which customs and VAT relief can be applied for boats outside the UK on 31 December 2020 and subsequently brought back to the UK.Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many individuals settled disguised remuneration tax liability by the 30 September 2020 deadline; and how many individuals were in the settlement process for disguised remuneration tax liability at the time the publication of Sir Amyas Morse's Loan Charge review.
Answered by Jesse Norman
HMRC are currently compiling, analysing and assuring the relevant settlement data up to 30 September 2020.
At the time of the independent review of the Loan Charge, about 12,000 employers and individuals still had the opportunity to keep clear of the Loan Charge by concluding settlement, having provided all the relevant information to HMRC by 5 April 2019.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the oral contribution of 15 September 2020 of the Exchequer Secretary, Official Report, column 180, if he will publish the evidential basis demonstrating that the vast majority of brewers will benefit from proposed changes to small breweries tax relief.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
Further information about the review of Small Brewers Relief so far, including evidence collected, will be published alongside the technical consultation later this Autumn.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much Small Breweries' Relief has cost the public purse; and how many brewers have received it in each year since 2015.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
HMRC publishes annual statistics on Small Brewers Relief, this includes the number of people claiming the relief and the historic cost of the relief. Information on the historic number of brewers claiming the relief is not readily available. The latest publication of annual tax relief data for Small Brewers Relief can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/main-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate HMRC has made of the number of brewers producing between 2,100 hectolitres and 5,000 hectolitres a year.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
HMRC publishes annual statistics on Small Brewers Relief, this includes the number of people claiming the relief. Information on the number of brewers claiming the relief by production volume is not readily available. The Government will be bringing forward more details on the reform of SBR as part of the technical consultation later in the Autumn.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on what date case reference CHK100156838 will be determined by the Valuation Office Agency.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) completed case reference CHK100156838 on 4 March 2020.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many appeals against the rateable value of premises the Valuation Office Agency is considering.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The appeals process consists of three stages designed to ensure queries are dealt with at the earliest possible point: Check, Challenge and Appeal. The VOA deals with the Check and Challenge stages. Appeals are the responsibility of the independent Valuation Tribunal Service. Statistics on Appeals can be found on their website at https://www.valuationtribunal.gov.uk/about-us/publications-policies/vts-statistics/.