Asked by: John Whitby (Labour - Derbyshire Dales)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what process will be used to value family businesses after the changes to Business Property Relief are introduced.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The inheritance tax value of a person’s estate is the open market value of all their assets and liabilities. The forthcoming changes to business property relief will not change the existing rules on valuing a business. Valuation assumes a sale between a hypothetical seller and buyer, reflecting reality for all other factors such as industry conditions, trading history, and prospects, according to industry standards.
Asked by: John Whitby (Labour - Derbyshire Dales)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of automatically releasing funds in unclaimed adult-owned Child Trust Funds through the (a) benefit, (b) payroll and (c) student loan systems.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is aware of suggestions that a system could be developed for paying out the savings held in matured Child Trust Fund (CTF) accounts that have not been accessed by the account owners by the age of 21.
The savings in these accounts belong to the account owners, and are held by private sector CTF providers. The Government does not have the authority to close these accounts, or to access and transfer the savings in them. Neither does the infrastructure that would be needed across government departments and CTF providers to implement the proposal, exist.
The Government is committed to reuniting all young adults with their CTFs.
HMRC works with CTF providers, industry representatives and others such as the University and Colleges Admissions service to explore ways of enabling account owners to be aware of and trace their accounts.
Asked by: John Whitby (Labour - Derbyshire Dales)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle the rise in disguised employment in the hair and beauty sector.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC is committed to ensuring that the tax system operates fairly and efficiently and creates a level playing field for compliant businesses. Most businesses pay what they owe but a minority fail to register with HMRC or only declare a portion of their earnings.
HMRC is committed to tackling false self-employment and will investigate evidence suggesting businesses have misclassified individuals for tax purposes. In these cases, HMRC will take steps to ensure they pay the right Income Tax and National Insurance contributions.
HMRC recognises that some customers can find it hard to understand their tax obligations. HMRC is developing and testing new educational material specific to the hair and beauty sector to explain better the rent-a-chair model, making it easier for customers to get things right.
Asked by: John Whitby (Labour - Derbyshire Dales)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to reduce differences between the level of tax applied to (a) physical and (b) online businesses.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
To provide stability and predictability to both physical and online businesses, the government published its Corporate Tax Roadmap at Autumn Budget 2024. The roadmap committed to maintaining the main rate of Corporation Tax at 25%, which is the lowest in the G7, as well as a maintaining the UK’s generous R&D tax reliefs and world-leading capital allowance offer.
The Government also wants to ensure that the business rates burden is permanently rebalanced. That is why we have announced our intention to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure properties, with rateable values (RVs) below £500,000 from 2026-27. This permanent tax cut will ensure that they benefit from much-needed certainty and support.
We intend to fund these through introducing a higher multiplier for the highest value properties – those with RVs of £500,000 or above. These high-value properties cover the majority of large distribution warehouses, including those used by the online giants.
The final design of the new business rate multipliers, including their rates, will be set at Budget 2025 so that the Government can take into account the upcoming revaluation outcomes, as well as the economic and fiscal context.
To ensure that digital services providers pay their fair share of UK tax, the UK introduced the Digital Services Tax (DST) which is a 2 per cent tax levied on search engines, social media platforms, and online marketplaces to reflect the value they derive from UK users.
Asked by: John Whitby (Labour - Derbyshire Dales)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to ensure that banks abide by the Payment Systems Regulator's new mandatory reimbursement framework and swiftly investigate cases of APP fraud.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government takes the issue of fraud very seriously and is dedicated to protecting the public from this appalling crime. The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) is the independent regulator with responsibility for the Authorised Push Payment (APP) scam reimbursement regime.
The PSR’s rules require in scope Payment Service Providers (PSPs) to reimburse victims of APP scams, which take place over the Faster Payments System, within five business days of making a claim. However, PSPs may take longer in specific circumstances, including where it may need more time to gather sufficient information from the victim or third parties to help assess the claim.
To monitor the success and impact of its regime, the PSR has committed to commission an independent post-implementation review of its policy after 12 months of the policy being in force.
On 11 March, the Government announced its intentions to consolidate the PSR and its functions primarily within the FCA. The PSR continues to be an independent economic regulator with full access to its statutory powers until legislation is passed to change this and APP scam victims will continue to benefit from the same levels of protection.