Income Tax

Debate between Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton and Lord Newby

Wednesday 19th November 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, the amount of income tax paid by the top 1% is now 28% of the total income tax revenues, which is the highest proportion it has ever been. That is because this Government have put substantially more money into fighting tax avoidance and evasion—far, far more—than the previous Administration.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton (Lab)]

My Lords, we have heard various Ministers refer to government employees in terms of paying the living wage. It appears to be a sort of “This ministry does, this ministry doesn’t” situation. Why does not the whole of government do that, particularly given that some of the people who work in those government departments live in London, where the cost of living is very high?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, the Government support the principle of paying the minimum wage. A number of government departments are already doing it and others are considering introducing it.

National Minimum Wage

Debate between Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton and Lord Newby

Thursday 6th November 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, the number of companies that were accredited for paying the living wage in 2013 was 432. I believe that the number has more than doubled during the course of this year.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton (Lab)]

My Lords, will the Minister identify those people in government departments who do not pay either the living wage or take into account what people need? Will he please comment on the large number of people working in the care sector who get the minimum wage but do not actually receive it because they are not paid for the time taken in travelling between clients? How on earth can the Government announce that the route out of poverty is work in these circumstances?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, as I said, a number of departments already pay the living wage. It is fair to say that there is a move across the rest of government in that direction, which is not yet complete. It is for individual departments to take those decisions. As far as care workers are concerned, HMRC, which is responsible for enforcing the minimum wage, has done a significant amount of work on this and is increasing its enforcement activities in the care sector and elsewhere. I take the point that the noble Baroness makes. In 2012-13, HMRC identified £3.9 million in arrears of wages for 26,000 workers who were not getting their full whack on the minimum wage.

Taxation: Rental Income

Debate between Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton and Lord Newby

Tuesday 3rd December 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, there is a very disparate housing market in London. At the bottom end of the market, the vast bulk of houses are purchased domestically. At the very top end, the vast bulk of houses are purchased by foreign buyers, particularly from Russia, eastern Europe and the Far East. One key thing that we are very keen to try to achieve is a greater degree of housebuilding in London and elsewhere. Only by building a lot more houses will it be possible to satisfy the demands of a growing population.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton (Lab)]

My Lords, why has the Minister not undertaken to investigate the value of a register? Surely, it would help the Government, HMRC and taxpayers were a register to be established.

[Lord Newby]

I thought that I had said that I would take that matter up with colleagues in the DCLG.

Economic Inequality

Debate between Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton and Lord Newby

Wednesday 23rd October 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, the biggest task in reducing inequality, as the commission points out, is to get more people into work, and this Government are doing that. For example, the number of NEETs has fallen consecutively over many quarters, the number of people in work increased by 155,000 in the last quarter and the proportion of the population in work is at a record level. We on this side of the House will take no lessons from him about getting people into work and earning good money.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton (Lab)]

My Lords, will the Minister undertake to work with his colleagues to ensure that, when we are given figures for employment, they include a breakdown which tells the public how many people are earning a living wage, how many are in part-time work and how many are on zero-hours contracts? HS2 will not help my friends and colleagues from Wales. The Government keep trumpeting that the issue is getting people into employment, but tell that to people for whom getting into employment is getting into poverty.

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, of the three categories of figures that the noble Baroness referred to, those for part-time work are already available. For zero-hours, however, I think that the figures have been made available, have been challenged and are being looked at. If we want a rebalancing towards the regions, we are not going to achieve that overnight. We need long-term transformational projects, of which High Speed 2 is one. It is vitally important for the long-term well-being of the regions.

Taxation: Income Tax

Debate between Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton and Lord Newby

Monday 24th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, I could not possibly comment on that last point. I refer the noble Lord, and indeed all other noble Lords, to the extremely comprehensive assessment made by HMRC last year, entitled The Exchequer effect of the 50 per cent additional rate of income tax.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton]

My Lords, the Minister acceded to the point that announcing in advance that tax rates will change leads to a change in people’s habits. Why did the Government give people so long to avoid paying this tax? The proposed spending on facilities for troops returning from Afghanistan, for example, will have to be paid for over a long time. Does the Minister accept that this could be paid for much more quickly if that decision had not been taken?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, the noble Baroness will remember that the 50p tax rate was introduced by her colleague Gordon Brown during his premiership and that a long period of notice was given. The rate was not introduced by this Government. As far as paying for troops who are coming back from Afghanistan is concerned, that will be paid for out of general revenue, which is the right way of doing it.

Taxation: Income Tax

Debate between Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton and Lord Newby

Wednesday 6th March 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton]

My Lords, will the Minister admit that some of the people to whom I think the noble Baroness, Lady Gardner, was referring are classified as self-employed and therefore are not protected under the national minimum wage legislation? Will he write to me with details of the reductions in benefit that will occur for those who earn too little to benefit from the subject matter in the Question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, and who will therefore be losing money twice?

[Lord Newby]

I am always happy to write to the noble Baroness. On the first point she raised, if one is self-employed, the only person you can look to to pay your salary is yourself. If you earn money yourself, you are able to pay yourself well. If you have a contract with somebody as a self-employed person, you should be looking to be paid at least the minimum wage under that contract. However, many self-employed people do consultancy work of various sorts for a fixed price or produce goods and the extent to which they earn an income depends on the extent to which they are able to sell what they produce.

Taxation: Tax Collection

Debate between Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton and Lord Newby

Tuesday 5th February 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

I think that the noble Lord is crying for the moon.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton]

My Lords, will the Minister help me? I have heard conflicting figures for staffing at HMRC. Can he tell me the figures for the total staffing complement over the past three years, as well as give me the breakdown between individual areas of work?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, the staffing level at HMRC fell from about 94,000 to 66,000 under the previous Government. Under the comprehensive spending review, it is due to fall by about another 10,000. While that is happening, there will, as I said, be an increase of about 2,500 for compliance. There will therefore be a shift towards more compliance against a backdrop of a significant change in the way in which people submit tax returns. In 2010 only 42% of corporation tax returns were submitted online, but in 2011-12 that number had increased by 96,000. As I have said before, the number of staff you need to process that kind of activity has fallen considerably because they are no longer dealing with paper returns.

Taxation: Avoidance

Debate between Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton and Lord Newby

Tuesday 11th December 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

We are reducing the rate of corporation tax but there is a danger of a race to the bottom. Corporation tax brings in a substantial amount of money and is an important contributor to the Exchequer.

[Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton]

My Lords, would the Minister join me in welcoming the fact that Her Majesty’s Government, having cut the money to HMRC for dealing with this problem, have now restored their own cut? Would he see whether it is possible to collate information about those companies with large numbers of employees that do not even pay a living wage to those employees, let alone their tax, and therefore cost the Treasury in additional income support?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, I am afraid the noble Baroness is wrong about what has been happening with the resources: we have been reallocating resources within HMRC. Bearing in mind that so many taxpayers now pay their tax online, we do not need as many people opening envelopes. However, we do need highly sophisticated people working as analysts and investigators.