Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with (a) Cabinet colleagues and (b) officials in his Department on compensation and support for affected Equitable Life policyholders.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Equitable Life Payment Scheme has been fully wound down and closed since 2016 and there are no plans to reopen any previous decisions relating to the Payment Scheme or review the £1.5 billion funding allocation previously made to it. Further guidance on the status of the Payment Scheme after closure is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/equitable-life-payment-scheme#closure-of-the-scheme.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 8 April (HL3589), whether they will now answer the question put; namely, what is their assessment of the implications for calculating entitlement to contributory working age benefits and pensions of abolishing, rather than cutting, national insurance contributions.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government already cut employee NICs by 4p, self-employed NICs by 3p and abolished the requirement to pay Class 2 for self-employed people across Autumn and Spring without increasing borrowing or cutting spending. That is the model the Government wants to follow when it is prudent to go further.
The ambition to abolish NICs is about reducing tax and rewarding work, not about reforming the contributory benefits system. It is a long-term ambition, and the Government has been clear, this cannot be done overnight and this can only be done in a fiscally responsible way.
Cutting NICs rates does not affect anyone’s entitlement to the State Pension or contributory benefits.
Asked by: Lord Leigh of Hurley (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to remarks by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 21 February (HL Deb col 666) with regard to the Trade and Cooperation Agreement in the context of engaging with the EU for approval for extending the enterprise investment scheme (EIS) and venture capital trust (VCT) scheme, whether the subsidy control provisions of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement apply to EIS and VCT relief, in particular the requirement under Article 363 of that agreement that a subsidy must be selective.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government is extending the sunset clause for the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and the Venture Capital Trust (VCT) scheme to 2035.
The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement is now the primary framework governing subsidy control between the UK and EU. As such, EU State aid rules no longer apply to the UK, save for the limited circumstances covered by the Windsor Framework.
For the EIS and VCT schemes, the government is engaging with the EU, under the Windsor Framework, due to Northern Ireland’s unique access to the EU Single Market.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether self-employed individuals who file their tax returns late but owe no tax are penalised.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC issues SA tax returns to customers when the information they hold suggests that the customer meets the published criteria for completing one. HMRC often cannot determine someone’s tax liability until they have sent in a tax return, therefore they need the return to establish whether there is tax due or not. Late filing and payment penalties are charged to encourage customers to file on time but we can cancel a customer’s late filing penalty if they have a reasonable excuse. Customers can also ask HMRC to remove them from the SA process for future years if they no longer meet the criteria.
From October 2011 the penalty legislation changed, from this point the capping of penalties was no longer factored into the calculation and any fixed penalty applied remained at the full amount regardless of liability.
Although no change to the current penalty regime has been announced, Penalty Reform within Making Tax Digital will change the way we calculate penalties for late Submission and late payment of tax. The new legislation will factor in the Liability amount, Filing frequency and length of time outstanding within its penalty calculations.
In reforming late payment and late filing penalties HMRC’s aim is to encourage those who persistently default to comply with their tax obligations rather than penalise those who make occasional errors.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he is developing economic models to forecast (a) price trends and (b) growth potential in cryptocurrencies.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is not developing economic models to forecast cryptoasset trends. Rather, it uses information from a range of sources to understand broad trends in the market in order to inform policy development.
In October last year, the Treasury published its final proposals for creating the UK’s financial services regulatory regime for cryptoassets, and is currently working to deliver legislation giving effect to its proposals. As part of this, the government will publish analysis of the impacts of its legislation on cryptoasset businesses in scope of the forthcoming regime in the usual way.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many advance transfer pricing agreements have been signed by HM Revenue and Customs in each of the past five years.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Revenue and Customs has entered into the following number of advance pricing agreements in the past five tax years:
This information is included in the Transfer Pricing and Diverted Profits Tax Statistics 2022 to 2023 which are publicly available and published on gov.uk[1].
[1] Transfer Pricing and Diverted Profits Tax statistics 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the findings of the Financial Conduct Authority survey indicating a decrease in savings and investing among UK adults, what steps they are taking to help individuals and families save and invest.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to incentivising greater saving and investment, to help hard working people save for their future goals and build greater financial resilience.
The Help to Save scheme was launched in September 2018 and is intended to promote financial resilience among working households on low incomes by supporting them to kickstart a regular, long-term savings habit and build a financial buffer for a rainy day.
Individuals can also save up to £20,000 into an Individual Savings Account (ISA) each year, and any savings income received within an ISA is tax free. This, along with the Personal Savings Allowance of up to £1,000 for basic rate taxpayers means that around 85% of people with savings income pay no tax on that income.
However, the Government also recognises that people need support to make effective investment decisions. This is why the Government and FCA are working on a joint review of the boundary between financial advice and guidance to ensure people can access appropriate support with their financial decision-making.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to sustain the momentum of the economic recovery following indications that GDP increased in January and February.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
To sustain economic growth momentum, the government is continuing to pursue an ambitious policy agenda to increase growth and productivity across the economy. The OBR expects that policies announced at the previous three fiscal events will increase the size of the economy by 0.7% by 2028-29.
In addition to making full expensing permanent, a tax cut to companies of over £10 billion a year, the government has announced measures to boost labour supply, which the OBR predicts will increase the number of hours worked by the equivalent of over 300,000 full-time workers by the end of the forecast period.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the review of Bank of England forecasting led by Ben Bernanke.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Bank of England has operational independence from the government to carry out its statutory responsibilities for monetary policy and financial stability. The government’s commitment to this independence remains absolute.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of freezing the level of the tax-free Personal Allowance on the economy; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing this level.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to keeping taxes low to support people to keep more of what they earn. The Personal Allowance has nearly doubled since 2010 and is over 20% higher in real terms.
As with all aspects of the tax system, the Government keeps the Personal Allowance under review and any decisions on future changes will be made by the Chancellor in the context of the wider public finances.