Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has taken steps to establish exemption rules with the EU for cross-border workers during the covid-19 pandemic from Article SSC.12 of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement Protocol on Social Security Coordination.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government has been working with the EU to protect the social security position of workers moving between the UK and the EU. Reciprocal arrangements have been put in place covering all EU member states which allow HMRC to disregard changes to individuals’ work locations caused solely by COVID-related restrictions when deciding where these workers pay their social security contributions.
This includes multi-state workers who are covered by Article 13 of Regulation (EC) 883/2004 under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement or by Article SSC.12 of the Protocol on Social Security Coordination in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that cash machines in deprived areas are free to use.
Answered by John Glen
LINK (the scheme that runs the UK's largest ATM network) has commitments to protect the broad geographic spread of free-to-use ATMs and is held to account against these commitments by the Payment Systems Regulator.
Specifically, LINK has committed to protect free-to-use ATMs more than one kilometre away from the next nearest free ATM or Post Office, and free access to cash on high streets (where there is a cluster of five or more retailers) that do not have a free-to-use ATM or a Post Office counter within one kilometre. Furthermore, LINK's members have made £5 million available to fund ATMs at the request of communities with poor access to cash.
More broadly, the Government recognises that cash is important to the daily lives of millions of people across the UK, and has therefore committed to legislating to protect access to cash for those who need it and ensuring that the UK's cash infrastructure is sustainable for the long term.
The Government made legislative changes to support the widespread offering of cashback without a purchase by shops and other businesses as part of the Financial Services Act 2021, and has announced that it will consult this summer on further legislative proposals for protecting cash for the long term.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment his Department has made of the need to simplify the PAYE system; and whether the Government plans to take any steps to simplify that system.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Between now and 2020, the Government’s vision is to build a transparent and accessible UK tax system that is fit for the digital age and reduces the burden on taxpayers. HM Revenue and Customs has embarked on a major transformation programme – Making Tax Digital – to do this.
The successful introduction of PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) represented the biggest change to the UK payroll process since PAYE began in 1944. It provided an important step for the Government towards Making Tax Digital and the creation of digital accounts which will enable taxpayers to see and manage their tax affairs online in real time.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress the Government has made on the implementation of the OECD's Base Erosion and Profit Shifting programme; and what assessment he has made of the effect of that programme on the collection of corporation tax in the UK.
Answered by David Gauke
The UK has been at the forefront of international efforts to tackle corporate tax avoidance through the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project, which was completed in 2015.
The UK has committed to introducing country-by-country reporting from 1 January 2016 and rules to deal with hybrid mismatch arrangements from 1 January 2017. As set out in Autumn Statement 2014, these measures are estimated to yield around £45 million and £260 million respectively over the next five years. The policy costings were certified by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.
The Government has also consulted on the OECD recommendations on the design of rules to prevent groups from gaining excessive tax deductions for interest expense, and how the OECD report on the definition of substantial activities in the context of preferential intellectual property regimes impacts the UK Patent Box.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress his Department has made in tackling international tax avoidance.
Answered by David Gauke
The Government is committed to countering tax avoidance to ensure all tax payers pay their fair share. The UK has been at the forefront of international efforts to tackle corporate tax avoidance through the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project, which had the objective of ensuring profits are taxed where economic activities are performed.
The first phase of the BEPS project was delivered in 2014, and the UK was the first adopter of the 2014 recommendations, by legislating for the internationally agreed country-by-country reporting template; and consulting on implementing the OECD agreed rules to deal with hybrid mismatch arrangements.
In line with the objectives of the BEPS project, the Government also introduced the Diverted Profits Tax to target contrived arrangements used by large multinational companies to divert profits away from the UK.
The final BEPS project reports were published on 5 October 2015. The UK will give full consideration to the outputs of the BEPS project and will engage with the OECD’s work on developing a framework for monitoring implementation.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans his Department has to ensure (a) British Overseas Territories and (b) the City of London comply with international standards for transparency in tax matters.
Answered by David Gauke
In 2013, a major focus of the UK’s G8 Presidency was tax transparency and combatting offshore tax evasion. As part of this the UK promoted the development of a new global standard for reciprocal automatic exchange of financial account information in order to effectively tackle the global problem of tax evasion. Due in large part to the UK’s leadership, over 90 countries and jurisdictions have now committed to the new global standard – known as the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) – and will begin automatically exchanging information under the standard by 2017 or 2018.
Together with the UK itself, all of the UK’s Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories with a recognised financial centre have committed to the 2017 timetable as early adopters. They will also be automatically exchanging 2014 and 2015 financial account information bilaterally with the UK in 2016. The City of London is covered by the CRS which has been implemented in UK law.
In addition to their commitments to early adoption of the CRS, all of the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies have engaged fully in the Global Forum Peer Review Process on exchange of information on request, have publicly committed to improvements in the transparency of company ownership and meet Financial Action Task Force requirements.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the amount of money saved for the public purse as a result of the Government's policies on tackling international tax avoidance.
Answered by David Gauke
The UK has been at the forefront of international action to tackle corporate tax avoidance through the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. The first phase of the BEPS project was delivered in 2014 and the UK committed to introduce country-by-country reporting from 1 January 2016 and rules to deal with hybrid mismatch arrangements from 1 January 2017.
In line with the objectives of the BEPS project, the Government also introduced the Diverted Profits Tax from 1 April 2015 to target contrived arrangements used by large multinational companies to divert profits away from the UK.
As set out in Autumn Statement 2014, together these measures addressing are estimated to yield around £1.6 billion over the next five years. The policy costings were certified by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.
The final BEPS project reports were published by the OECD on 5 October 2015 and endorsed by the G20 Finance Ministers at their meeting in Lima on 8 October. The UK welcomes the outcomes of the BEPS project and will give full consideration to the OECD’s recommendations.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what his policy is on the introduction of a financial transaction tax in (a) the UK and (b) partnership with other taxation authorities.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The UK has a financial transaction tax. Stamp tax on shares raises significant revenue from transactions in UK equities.
The UK has no plans to introduce a financial transaction tax in partnership with other tax authorities. Such a tax would only be effective if applied globally, and there is currently no prospect of global agreement.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of which are the principal methods of tax evasion; and what proposals he has for tackling each such method.
Answered by David Gauke
HMRC's latest estimates of thetax gap, which covers the tax lost due to all forms of non-compliance, including evasion was published on 22 October 2015. The tax gap in the 2013 to 2014 financial year (the latest year) was estimated to be £34billion – 6.4% of the total tax that HMRC estimates was due. Tax evasion accounted for £4.4 billion of this. Tax evaders employ a wide range of methods, ranging from simply not recording taxable transactions to sophisticated sales suppression. HMRC continually reviews its approach to tackling different methods of evasion in the light of operational experience.
Since 2010 HMRC has delivered record compliance yield from tackling all forms of non-compliance, including evasion, avoidance and fraud.