Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many staff of each grade worked in the Corporation Tax International and Stamps team of HM Revenue and Customs in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14 and (e) 2014-15 to date.
Answered by David Gauke
The Corporation Tax International and Stamps team of HM Revenue and Customs did not exist until March 2014. Annual statistics are not available for 2014/15
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many staff of each grade worked in the Local Compliance team of HM Revenue and Customs in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14 and (e) 2014-15 to date.
Answered by David Gauke
Information on HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) staff and teams is available in HMRC’s annual report and on GOV.UK.
HMRC altered a number of its compliance scoring policies in 2011/12. Therefore, the Local Compliance's compliance revenue for 2010-11 are not directly comparable with later years.
Year Total Compliance Revenue
2011-12 £6,880m
2012-13 £7,767m
2013-14 £8,907m
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many staff of each grade resigned from the Local Compliance team of HM Revenue and Customs in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14 and (e) 2014-15 to date.
Answered by David Gauke
Information on HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) staff and teams is available in HMRC’s annual report and on GOV.UK.
HMRC altered a number of its compliance scoring policies in 2011/12. Therefore, the Local Compliance's compliance revenue for 2010-11 are not directly comparable with later years.
Year Total Compliance Revenue
2011-12 £6,880m
2012-13 £7,767m
2013-14 £8,907m
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the compliance yield of the Local Compliance team of HM Revenue and Customs was in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14 and (e) 2014-15 to date.
Answered by David Gauke
Information on HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) staff and teams is available in HMRC’s annual report and on GOV.UK.
HMRC altered a number of its compliance scoring policies in 2011/12. Therefore, the Local Compliance's compliance revenue for 2010-11 are not directly comparable with later years.
Year Total Compliance Revenue
2011-12 £6,880m
2012-13 £7,767m
2013-14 £8,907m
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 1.5 of the HM Revenue and Customs' (HMRC) summary of responses to the consultation on Direct Recovery of Debts, what estimate he has made of the number of HMRC staff members that will be required to guarantee that every debtor will receive a face-to-face visit in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2016-17, (c) 2017-18, (d) 2018-19 and (e) 2019-20; and whether those staff will be new or existing HMRC staff.
Answered by David Gauke
Direct Recovery of Debts (DRD) is expected to affect around 17,000 debtors each year.
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has a well-established process for making face-to-face visits to debtors who do not pay what they owe. In 2013-14, HMRC’s Field Force agents made around 900,000 visits to debtors.
Some of those who will be considered for DRD would receive a visit from a Field Force officer in the course of normal debt enforcement. Once DRD begins operation, these visits will provide a further opportunity for HMRC to:
personally identify the taxpayer and confirm it is their debt
explain to debtors what they owe, why they are being pursued for payment, and discuss payment of the debt
discuss options to resolve the debt, including offering a Time to Pay arrangement to the debtor, where appropriate
identify debtors who are in a vulnerable position and offer them the support they need to settle their debts.
HMRC anticipates that it will absorb the operational cost of DRD visits within its current funding envelope, and the Government has budgeted £800,000 for the systems changes that will underpin the delivery of this measure. HMRC does not expect to recruit additional staff for this purpose.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 1.5 of the HM Revenue and Customs' (HMRC) summary of responses to the consultation on Direct Recovery of Debts, how many HMRC staff will work in the new vulnerable customers unit in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2016-17, (c) 2017-18, (d) 2018-19 and (e) 2019-20; and whether those staff will be new or existing HMRC staff.
Answered by David Gauke
The vulnerable customers unit will provide additional support to HMRC customers who owe debts to HMRC and have been identified as vulnerable.
HMRC will review the resourcing of this unit over time, to ensure the Department can respond appropriately to customer demand and from ongoing work with the voluntary sector.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the table on page 65 of the Autumn Statement 2014, what proportion of the revenue associated with the income tax: salary sacrifice and expenses including umbrella companies measure he plans will result from reforms to legislation related to umbrella companies in (a) 2014-15, (b) 2015-16, (c) 2016-17, (d) 2017-18, (e) 2018-19 and (f) 2019-20.
Answered by David Gauke
The yield from the measure referred to (income tax: salary sacrifice and expenses including umbrella companies) relates to the introduction of a new exemption for qualifying expenses which cannot be used in conjunction with salary sacrifice. This follows a recommendation from the Office of Tax Simplification and a consultation undertaken by HMRC over the summer. Draft legislation for this measure was published on 10th December. The decision to prevent the exemption from being used alongside salary sacrifice schemes will prevent tax loss from employers (including umbrella companies).
The Government will shortly be publishing a discussion document specifically reviewing the use of overarching contracts used by umbrella companies and is separate from the measure referred to above.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 1.5 of the HM Revenue and Customs' summary of responses to the consultation on Direct Recovery of Debts, what estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of guaranteeing that every debtor will receive a face-to-face visit in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2016-17, (c) 2017-18, (d) 2018-19 and (e) 2019-20.
Answered by David Gauke
Direct Recovery of Debts (DRD) is expected to affect around 17,000 debtors each year.
HMRC has a well-established process for making face-to-face visits to debtors who do not pay what they owe. In 2013-14, HMRC’s Field Force agents made around 900,000 visits to debtors.
Some of those who will be considered for DRD would receive a visit from a Field Force officer in the course of normal debt enforcement. Once DRD begins operation, these visits will provide a further opportunity for HMRC to:
personally identify the taxpayer and confirm it is their debt
explain to debtors what they owe, why they are being pursued for payment, and discuss payment of the debt
discuss options to resolve the debt, including offering a Time to Pay arrangement to the debtor, where appropriate
identify debtors who are in a vulnerable position and offer them the support they need to settle their debts.
HMRC anticipates that it will absorb the operational cost of DRD visits within its current funding envelope, £800,000 for the systems changes that will underpin the delivery of this measure.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent representations he has received on proposals for a diverted profits tax.
Answered by David Gauke
Treasury Ministers and officials meet with, and receive representations from, a wide range of organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors, as part of the usual policy making process. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Treasury’s practice to provide details of all such representations.
Draft legislation for the Diverted Profits Tax was published on 10 December for technical consultation, until 4 February 2015. The measure will be effective from 1 April 2015.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 1.251 of the Autumn Statement 2014, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to reform legislation relating to umbrella companies.
Answered by David Gauke
Detail on our proposals can be found at paragraph 2.147 of the Autumn Statement 2014.