Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many complaints HM Revenue and Customs has received of non-payment of landfill tax in each year since 2010.
The Government is committed to tackling tax fraud and avoidance and has re-invested almost £1 billion in HMRC to strengthen the response to criminal attacks on the tax system, tax avoidance, and unpaid tax debt.
HMRC’s response to non-compliance is tailored to the seriousness of the offence. HMRC is actively responding to the risks in the sector, and working with the National Crime Agency to develop and deliver a comprehensive multi-agency waste sector campaign.
Visits to landfill sites are one part of HMRC’s response to landfill tax compliance.
In addition to these visits and audit checks, HMRC has launched a cross-tax waste sector pilot exercise which is currently under way, where cases are being worked across all taxes, rather than just landfill tax. HMRC is also working collaboratively with other agencies to tackle non-compliance and develop a joined up multi-agency strategy, capitalising on the full range of sanctions available.
HMRC adopts a risk-based approach to compliance activity to enable resources to be deployed flexibly to areas of highest risk and does not therefore allocate budgets to any particular tax regime
HMRC’s management information systems are unable to identify the number of complaints received specifically about the non-payment of landfill tax without incurring disproportionate costs.