Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason HMRC charge a fee to taxpayers who pay their tax liabilities using a debit or credit card; and whether she plans to remove this charge.

I can confirm that no fees are charged when payment is made using a personal debit card.

Fees only apply when using a corporate credit or corporate debit card, and these are in place to cover the processing costs charged by Visa/Mastercard, the Scheme Issuer and the Merchant Acquirer.

To avoid these charges, a range of alternative methods are available to customers including Direct Debit and all the bank transfer payment options.

Payments by personal credit cards are not accepted by HMRC as the associated processing costs for these cards are prohibitive.