Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Rawmarsh and Conisbrough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the extent to which gains made on residential property that would otherwise be subject to capital gains tax are currently subject to (a) final period exemption and (b) lettings relief.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
For individuals who claim final period exemption or letting relief, there is no requirement to file a Capital Gains Tax return to HMRC if the amount payable results in no liability being incurred.
Individuals who incur a Capital Gains Tax liability must provide information on the reliefs they are claiming separately in the unstructured additional information section of the Self Assessment return. Utilising this data to provide an assessment as requested can only be done at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Rawmarsh and Conisbrough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of the gap between tax owed and tax paid by private landlords.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The information requested is not available as HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) do not make a separate estimate of the proportion of the total tax gap attributable to private landlords.
However, HMRC do estimate the tax gap arising from individuals in employment who have not declared and therefore not paid tax on lettings income. The latest estimate of this tax gap was £560 million for the tax year 2017-18.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Rawmarsh and Conisbrough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of landlords in each local authority area who are registered for self-assessment with HM Revenue and Customs.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
The table attached presents the number of individuals who declared income from property on their Self-Assessment tax returns for the 2016-17 tax year, the latest year for which data is available, excluding those who declared income from furnished holiday lettings.
Note that (i) these figures are based on tax return data, and not Self-Assessment registrations; and (ii) the locations given in the Table relate to the residences of the individuals with property income, and not the locations of properties from which they declared income.
HMRC do not hold information about the total number of landlords and so it is not possible to provide a proportion of the numbers in Self-Assessment against that total.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Rawmarsh and Conisbrough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress he has made in raising stamp duty for foreign buyers of UK property.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
At Budget 2018, the government announced it would consult on a new one per cent Stamp Duty Land Tax surcharge for non-UK residents purchasing residential property in England and Northern Ireland.
The consultation, published on 11 February 2019, sets out the proposed design of the surcharge. The government welcomes comments from individuals, companies, advisers, representative bodies and others who would be affected by these changes. The consultation will run until 6 May 2019 and is available at:
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Rawmarsh and Conisbrough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to ensure that mortgage lenders do not prevent landlords leasing properties to tenants in receipt of social security benefits.
Answered by John Glen
The Government wants to ensure tenants in receipt of housing benefit are able to access suitable properties.
UK Finance has assured us that the majority of active Buy-to-Let lenders do not prevent landlords leasing properties to tenants in receipt of social security benefits. Therefore, any landlord who wants to let to benefit claimants should be able to easily find a lender who will allow that.
It is also worth noting that only about a third of private rental properties are financed by a buy to let mortgage.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Rawmarsh and Conisbrough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of the tax gap between tax owed and tax paid by private landlords.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
The information requested is not available as HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not make a separate estimate of the proportion of the total tax gap attributable to private landlords.
However, HMRC does estimate the tax gap arising from individuals in employment who have not declared and therefore not paid tax on lettings income. The latest estimate of this tax gap was £600 million for the tax year 2016-17.
HMRC publishes the 2014-15 estimate of this tax gap in Table H.5, and describes the methodology used to project this forward to 2016-17 in paragraphs H61 to H73, in ‘Measuring tax gaps 2018 edition: methodological annex’ available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/measuring-tax-gaps.
The Government has made excellent progress to lower the overall tax gap, which remains at its lowest level for five years at 5.7% for 2016-17.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Rawmarsh and Conisbrough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many renting households have paid stamp duty land tax (SDLT) in each of the last five years; and how much SDLT has been paid by such households in total.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
The table below provides estimates of the number of residential transactions that were liable for the leasehold rates of SDLT based on the net present value (NPV) of the rent. NPV of the rental amount for leasehold property transactions is the total rent paid over the term of the lease, discounted to take account of the time value of money. This includes transactions that where SDLT at the residential premium rates was paid on the leasehold premium value:
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| Estimates of Residential Transactions liable to SDLT on rental amounts 1 |
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| Tax year | Number of liable transactions | Value of SDLT paid (£m) |
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| 2012-13 | 2,900 |
| 11 |
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| 2013-14 | 2,900 |
| 11 |
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| 2014-15 | 3,600 |
| 14 |
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| 2015-16 | 5,200 |
| 20 |
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| 2016-17,P | 5,800 |
| 33 |
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| 1 SDLT ceased being charged in Scotland from April 2015 so figures from 2015-16 onwards are not directly comparable to earlier years | |||||
| P Provisional figures |
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Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Rawmarsh and Conisbrough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of annual spend on the (a) Help to Buy ISA in each financial year between 2015-16 and 2020/21 and (b) Lifetime ISA in each financial year between 2017-18 and 2020-21.
Answered by Steve Barclay
The information requested is available from the Office of Budget Responsibility in their Economic and Fiscal Outlook. The most recent version of this document can be found at: http://budgetresponsibility.org.uk/efo/economic-fiscal-outlook-november-2017/
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Rawmarsh and Conisbrough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with the insurance industry after the Grenfell Tower fire to ensure that residents of other tower blocks (a) can take out building or contents insurance and (b) do not pay more as a result of the fire at Grenfell Tower.
Answered by Steve Barclay
The Government is determined that insurers should treat customers fairly and firms are required to do so under the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules. The FCA sets the conduct standards required of insurance firms which aim to ensure consumers are treated fairly.
The Chancellor has discussed the Grenfell tower disaster with leading industry representatives to get an understanding of how they may respond, and any possible impact on insurance for residents. The industry have said that it is too early to properly understand the implications, so have not yet made any changes to their underwriting models or pricing strategies.
The Treasury has also been in contact with leading insurance companies and has received assurances that no individuals in tower blocks have been refused access to home insurance as a result of the fire at Grenfell Tower. Officials remain in regular contact with the insurance industry to understand how it may shape their view of fire risk. The Treasury will continue to monitor the situation and will investigate this matter further if it sees evidence of customers in tower blocks being treated unfairly.