Asked by: Chris Grayling (Conservative - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that the proceeds of the sale of Chelsea Football Club were not paid to Roman Abramovich; and what has happened with those funds.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Roman Abramovich remains subject to an asset freeze, meaning he will not benefit from the sale of Chelsea Football Club. The proceeds of the sale remain frozen in a UK bank account, awaiting the establishment of a Foundation to spend the proceeds on humanitarian purposes in Ukraine.
Asked by: Chris Grayling (Conservative - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason double glazing is not part of the package of energy improvements subject to zero VAT announced in his Spring Statement.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Chancellor announced at Spring Statement 2022 that the VAT relief for the installation of energy saving materials (ESMs) will be expanded in Great Britain.
From 1 April 2022, complex eligibility conditions to access the relief have been removed and wind and water turbines have been reinstated as qualifying materials. Qualifying installations will also now benefit from a VAT zero-rate until April 2027. Overall, this represents an additional £280 million of support for investment in ESMs over the next 5 years.
However, the VAT relief for ESMs was not extended to double glazing. While double glazing does have energy saving properties, it is already a popular means to improve the energy efficiency of one’s home. The English Housing Survey suggests that more than 85 per cent of properties in England are already fully double glazed: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/445440/EHS_Energy_efficiency_of_English_housing_2013.pdf.
As such, providing tax relief as an additional incentive to install double glazing in one’s home would represent poor value for money.
Asked by: Chris Grayling (Conservative - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the total revenue from stamp duty has been in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Jesse Norman
HMRC publish provisional monthly statistics tables for “HMRC tax receipts and National Insurance contributions for the UK” which contain columns with the UK figures for Stamp taxes on the 3 categories of “Shares”, “Stamp Duty Land Tax” and “Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings”. The provisional nature of these figures can mean that that they can change.
Asked by: Chris Grayling (Conservative - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the impact of the stamp duty holiday on revenues from stamp duty.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The latest estimate for revenue impact of the Stamp Duty Land Tax holiday, including the extension at the Spring Budget 2021, has been published by the NAO in their COVID-19 cost tracker.
https://www.nao.org.uk/covid-19/cost-tracker/
Asked by: Chris Grayling (Conservative - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 15 March 2021 to Question 163647, if he will publish information on the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme specifically in relation to theatrical freelances whose self-employment income was incorrectly classified as PAYE by the Royal Opera House.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government is unable to comment on specific cases due to taxpayer confidentiality.
Asked by: Chris Grayling (Conservative - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will enable theatrical freelances whose self-employment income was incorrectly classified as PAYE by the Royal Opera House to claim the full grants through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government announced at Budget 2021 that the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) will continue until September, with a fourth and a final fifth grant. This provides certainty to business as the economy reopens and means the SEISS continues to be one of the most generous schemes for the self-employed in the world.
HMRC work out SEISS eligibility based on information submitted by individuals on their Self-Assessment tax returns. As the deadline for 2019-20 tax returns has now passed, HMRC will now use these tax returns for the fourth and fifth grants, provided they were submitted by 2 March 2021.
This means more than 600,000 people are brought into scope who either became self-employed in 2019-20, or were ineligible for previous grants, but now may be eligible for the fourth grant on the basis of submitting their 2019-20 tax return.
The SEISS provides generous support to the self-employed, including freelancers who meet the eligibility criteria.
In addition, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) has been available to all employers with a PAYE system and all employees on PAYE regardless of their employment contract. As such, freelancers and those on short term contracts could be eligible for the CJRS if they are on PAYE and meet the eligibility criteria. The furloughing of staff through the CJRS is a voluntary arrangement, entered at the employers’ discretion and agreed by employees.
People who are ineligible for CJRS and the SEISS may qualify for other elements of the £407bn package of support the Government has made available.
Asked by: Chris Grayling (Conservative - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether HMRC can use its discretion in individual cases when approving applications to the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.
Answered by Jesse Norman
There is no legal right of appeal against decisions made in relation to the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS), and there is also no legal provision for ‘reasonable excuse’ within the legal framework for SEISS.
HMRC have limited discretion in operating the SEISS and any exercise of this discretion must be rational and justifiable on the grounds of good management and administration. This discretion can only be used in exceptional circumstances. Such circumstances could include situations where HMRC have made an error which has affected an individual’s eligibility for, or amount of, a SEISS grant.
The SEISS continues to be just one element of a substantial package of support for the self-employed. Those ineligible for the SEISS may still be eligible for other elements of the support available. The temporary £20 per week increase to the Universal Credit standard allowance has been extended for six months, and the Government has decided to extend the suspension of the Minimum Income Floor for three months, to the end of July 2021, so that where self-employed claimants' earnings have fallen significantly, their Universal Credit award will have increased to reflect their lower earnings. In addition to this, they may also have access to other elements of the package, including Restart Grants, the Recovery Loan scheme, business rates relief, and other business support schemes.
Asked by: Chris Grayling (Conservative - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the revenue from Stamp Duty has been in each of the last 15 years.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Data on Stamp Duty revenue up to 2019-20 is available in HM Revenue & Customs Annual Stamp Taxes publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-stamp-tax-statistics.