Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what comparative assessment she has made of the effectiveness of IT systems used by (a) Companies House and (b) HMRC.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
No comparative assessment has been completed of the IT systems. HMRC and Companies House have a joint commitment on sharing data and analytics to tackle corporate fraud relating to accounting and registration services.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) digitising and (b) streamlining the HMRC process for issuing (i) VAT registration numbers and (ii) corporation tax authentication codes.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
As part of the Government’s commitment to improve customer experience through reform and modernisation of tax and customs administration, HMRC recently published the Transformation Roadmap. As part of this plan, HMRC will continue to explore opportunities to digitise their services where it is right to do so. This includes the development of a secure and GDPR compliant digital method to communicate VAT registration details with customers. Until this is developed, VAT registration numbers are sent by physical post which minimises the risk of fraud by preventing the interception of VAT numbers by fraudsters.
Similarly, the activation code for a customer to add corporation tax (CT) services to their business tax account must be delivered by a secure process. HMRC are investing in their legacy corporation tax system in order to provide the foundation for future improvements and will work with customers to ensure that they meet the needs of the diverse CT population.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make a comparative assessment of the average processing times for (a) VAT and (b) Corporation Tax registration by (i) HMRC and (ii) other countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC is not able to provide a comparative assessment of the average processing times for (a) VAT and (b) Corporation Tax registration by (i) HMRC and (ii) other countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The OECD do not publish information of this nature.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions her Department has had with the National Cyber Security Centre on (a) long-term contract costs and (b) cybersecurity implications of awarding government-wide data infrastructure work to Palantir Technologies.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
The National Cyber Security Centre is part of GCHQ, and works closely with the rest of Government to improve the cyber security of critical infrastructure and systems.
It is HMG policy not to comment on the details of the Single Intelligence Account, including contract costs and conversations with HMT.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the High Income Child Benefit Charge on people earning just over £50,000 per year.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
By withdrawing Child Benefit from high-income parents where the higher earner earns £60,000 or more, the HICBC helps to ensure the sustainability of the public finances and protect our vital public services.
Information on the number of households that have a joint income of over £90,000 that are not subject to the High Income Child Benefit Charge is only available at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the High Income Child Benefit Charge on (a) single-earner and (b) dual-earner households with similar or higher combined incomes.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
By withdrawing Child Benefit from high-income parents where the higher earner earns £60,000 or more, the HICBC helps to ensure the sustainability of the public finances and protect our vital public services.
Information on the number of households that have a joint income of over £90,000 that are not subject to the High Income Child Benefit Charge is only available at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an estimate of the number of households that have a joint income of over £90,000 that are not subject to the High Income Child Benefit Charge.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
By withdrawing Child Benefit from high-income parents where the higher earner earns £60,000 or more, the HICBC helps to ensure the sustainability of the public finances and protect our vital public services.
Information on the number of households that have a joint income of over £90,000 that are not subject to the High Income Child Benefit Charge is only available at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of using household income to levy the High Income Child Benefit Charge.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
By withdrawing Child Benefit from high-income parents where the higher earner earns £60,000 or more, the HICBC helps to ensure the sustainability of the public finances and protect our vital public services.
Information on the number of households that have a joint income of over £90,000 that are not subject to the High Income Child Benefit Charge is only available at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps she plans to take to support small businesses with (a) energy prices, (b) inflation and (c) business rates.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
At Autumn Budget the Government announced it was freezing the small businesses multiplier for 2025-26, and extending the retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) business rates relief for 1-year at 40% (up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business). This means over a million properties will be protected from inflationary increases. In summer, the Government will publish an interim report that sets out a clear direction of travel for the business rates system, with further policy detail to follow at Autumn Budget 2025.
On energy prices, the Government supports businesses with electricity costs through the British Industrial Energy Supercharger. This is targeted towards businesses that are simultaneously more exposed to competition through trade and more impacted by higher energy prices. Currently the scheme saves businesses approximately 34% on electricity costs.
The Bank of England has responsibility for sustainably returning inflation to the 2% target, and the Government is supporting them to control inflation by reducing borrowing year on year from 2025-26 and meeting the fiscal rules.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to raise the VAT registration threshold in line with inflation to support small businesses.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
At £90,000, the UK has a higher VAT registration threshold than any EU country and the joint highest in the OECD. This keeps the majority of businesses out of the VAT regime altogether.
Any consideration of changes to the threshold would have to carefully balance potential impacts on small businesses, 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.