Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many taxpayers were owed repayments by HMRC in each year since 2020.

The tax system is designed to give repayments to taxpayers in a number of circumstances, for example where a customer claims an allowance or an expense, or where a company is due a VAT repayment. The tax revenue repayable by HMRC each year is published as part of HMRC’s Annual Report and Accounts. This information is available on GOV.UK:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-annual-report-and-accounts-2024-to-2025

There are many factors that influence whether a repayment is owed or not, such as a taxpayer instructing HMRC to retain credits to offset a future liability.

To calculate how many taxpayers were owed repayments by HMRC in each year since 2020 would exceed the cost threshold for answering parliamentary questions as the information (where it is available) is held on a number of different systems that would require separate interrogation and analysis to produce.