Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of trends in the level of students not reclaiming overpaid income tax.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The amount of income tax a student pays depends upon their total taxable income, including employment income. The standard income tax personal allowance for the 2025 to 2026 tax year is £12,570, which means that most students do not pay tax on the first £12,570 of their total taxable income.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not hold data in its income tax accounting systems that identifies students.
Students pay income tax through the PAYE system or through a Self Assessment tax return. After the end of the tax year, HMRC carry out an end of year reconciliation on all customers in PAYE in order to identify any overpayments or underpayments. Where tax has been overpaid, this will be automatically repaid to individuals, including students.
For individuals, including students, who submit a Self Assessment tax return, HMRC will process the return and any overpaid tax will automatically be repaid to the individual. Where an individual files their Self Assessment return online, they can request a repayment through their HMRC online account.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of increases in benefit in kind rates for used electric vehicle leasing via salary sacrifice schemes on levels of electric vehicle sales.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
At Autumn Budget, the Government announced new Company Car Tax rates for the years 2028-29 and 2029-30, which increase for both electric vehicles (EVs) and petrol/diesel vehicles, while still maintaining generous incentives to support EV take-up.
The Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) published alongside Budget set out the expected economic, equalities and other impacts, and highlighted that overall the measure was expected to encourage the take-up of zero emission vehicles.
The Government recognises that the Company Car Tax regime and the salary sacrifice exemption for ultra-low and zero emission vehicles continues to play an important role in the EV transition. The Government needs to balance these incentives against responsible management of public finances to ensure we have sufficient revenue to fund essential public services. A company car is a valuable benefit and therefore needs to be taxed appropriately.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of increasing the benefit in kind rates for new electric vehicles on sales of new electric vehicles.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
At Autumn Budget, the Government announced new Company Car Tax rates for the years 2028-29 and 2029-30, which increase for both electric vehicles (EVs) and petrol/diesel vehicles, while still maintaining generous incentives to support EV take-up.
The Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) published alongside Budget set out the expected economic, equalities and other impacts, and highlighted that overall the measure was expected to encourage the take-up of zero emission vehicles.
The Government recognises that the Company Car Tax regime and the salary sacrifice exemption for ultra-low and zero emission vehicles continues to play an important role in the EV transition. The Government needs to balance these incentives against responsible management of public finances to ensure we have sufficient revenue to fund essential public services. A company car is a valuable benefit and therefore needs to be taxed appropriately.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the economic benefits generated by the (a) Video Games Tax Relief and (b) Video Games Expenditure Credit; and if she will take steps to reform tax incentives.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Video games companies benefit from the Video Games Expenditure Credit (VGEC), which provides a generous tax credit of 34 per cent on UK video games development costs.
A report published by the BFI in 2021 found that VGEC, previously known as the Video Games Tax Relief (VGTR), supported increased spend in the UK by 22.8% between 2017-2019.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of trends in the level of tax avoidance associated with the Overseas Territories.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The inhabited Overseas Territories (OTs) are largely self-governing jurisdictions with democratically elected governments. In many OTs, responsibility for fiscal matters is devolved, including the determination of tax rates in line with international standards.
The Crown Dependencies (CDs) and all OTs with financial centres have committed to upholding international tax standards, including the tax transparency framework and the BEPS (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) Framework.
HMRC can access relevant information from the OTs, through both the automatic exchange of information (AEOI), and exchange on request, for tax investigations.
The Government has announced a record package to close the tax gap, including a commitment to grow HMRC’s compliance workforce by 5,500 people over the next five years. The Government has also published its approach to tacking offshore tax non-compliance, and announced an increase in HMRC’s resource assigned to tackling wealthy offshore non-compliance by around 400 people.
Accessible registers of beneficial ownership provide support in tackling illicit finance and corruption, and in exposing tax and sanctions evasion. The OTs have already made commitments to establish accessible registers. It remains our expectation that the CDs and OTs will ultimately implement fully public registers.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to reduce tax avoidance associated with the Overseas Territories.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The inhabited Overseas Territories (OTs) are largely self-governing jurisdictions with democratically elected governments. In many OTs, responsibility for fiscal matters is devolved, including the determination of tax rates in line with international standards.
The Crown Dependencies (CDs) and all OTs with financial centres have committed to upholding international tax standards, including the tax transparency framework and the BEPS (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) Framework.
HMRC can access relevant information from the OTs, through both the automatic exchange of information (AEOI), and exchange on request, for tax investigations.
The Government has announced a record package to close the tax gap, including a commitment to grow HMRC’s compliance workforce by 5,500 people over the next five years. The Government has also published its approach to tacking offshore tax non-compliance, and announced an increase in HMRC’s resource assigned to tackling wealthy offshore non-compliance by around 400 people.
Accessible registers of beneficial ownership provide support in tackling illicit finance and corruption, and in exposing tax and sanctions evasion. The OTs have already made commitments to establish accessible registers. It remains our expectation that the CDs and OTs will ultimately implement fully public registers.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of staff cuts at Dundee University on economic growth.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
The Government recognises the crucial role of universities in the UK’s innovation ecosystem and in delivering the skills needed to drive growth as part of the Industrial Strategy. Education policy is however devolved in Scotland. It is for the Scottish Government to consider the broader impact of developments in the education sector in Scotland, including of any potential staff cuts in Scottish universities.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to provide additional funding to the Scottish Government for the cost of additional National Insurance contributions in the public sector from the 2025-26 financial year.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Scottish Government will receive funding through the Barnett formula in the usual way in 2025-26, including for any support provided to UK Government departments for employer National Insurance contributions. This is the normal operation of the funding arrangements as set out in the Statement of Funding Policy.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of scrapping Multiple Dwellings Relief on housing supply.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The previous Government announced the abolition of Multiple Dwellings Relief following an external evaluation which found no strong evidence the relief was meeting its original objectives of supporting investment in the private rented sector. In addition, and as highlighted in the November 2021 consultation on reforms to MDR, the relief was subject to high levels of abuse.
Larger investors who purchase six or more properties in a single
transaction can still continue to benefit from the non-residential rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax. The Government will continue to engage with stakeholders in the build to rent sector to understand any concerns.
On housing more broadly, the Government has committed to delivering 1.5 million new homes and is reforming the National Planning Policy Framework to get Britain building, including by reintroducing mandatory housing targets.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the impact of scrapping Multiple Dwellings Relief in March 2024 on the economy.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The previous Government announced the abolition of Multiple Dwellings Relief following an external evaluation which found no strong evidence the relief was meeting its original objectives of supporting investment in the private rented sector. In addition, and as highlighted in the November 2021 consultation on reforms to MDR, the relief was subject to high levels of abuse.
Larger investors who purchase six or more properties in a single
transaction can still continue to benefit from the non-residential rates of Stamp Duty Land Tax. The Government will continue to engage with stakeholders in the build to rent sector to understand any concerns.
On housing more broadly, the Government has committed to delivering 1.5 million new homes and is reforming the National Planning Policy Framework to get Britain building, including by reintroducing mandatory housing targets.