Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many businesses became eligible to pay VAT in (a) 2023 and (b) each of the preceding five years; and if he will make an estimate of the number and proportion of those businesses that would not have become eligible for VAT payments if the threshold had risen in line with inflation.

The UK has a higher VAT registration threshold than any EU Member State and the second highest in the OECD at £85,000. This keeps the majority of businesses out of VAT altogether.

The number of businesses newly registering for VAT in each year can be found here: Value Added Tax (VAT) annual statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk), see Table T2.