Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many disguised employment enforcement actions have been taken by HMRC against hairdressing salons in the last 12 months.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The specific data requested is not available as HMRC systems do not segment data in away that would allow the required analysis. As such this information would only be available at disproportionate cost.
In addition, HMRC does not disclose data that could prejudice the assessment or collection of tax.
More generally, HMRC does however publish some customer compliance related information as part of the annually published report and accounts, which also includes data around Compliance activity.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing income tax relief in cases where a portion of a taxpayer's income is used to subsidise the (a) costs of living and (b) course fees of another person who is in college or university education.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government has provided a significant package of support to help households and individuals with the cost of living, taken together this is worth over £94 billion over 2022-2023 and 2023-2024.
There are a wide range of factors to take into consideration when introducing a tax relief. These include, but are not limited to: how effective the relief would be at achieving the policy intent, how targeted support would be, whether it adds complexity to the tax system and the cost.
Such an income tax relief would be regressive, as it would be of greatest benefit to those paying higher rates of tax while low-earning individuals with income below the Personal Allowance or the higher rate threshold would benefit less or not at all.
The Government does keep all aspects of the tax system under review.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of instances where online (a) Government and (b) HMRC forms do not recognise valid business VAT numbers.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HMRC is not aware of any significant issues regarding the recognition of VAT numbers in Government or HMRC forms. If an IT issue does cause a VAT number not to be recognised, HMRC works with its IT delivery partners to support impacted customers and resolve the issue as soon as possible.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the email correspondence of 25 January 2023 from the hon. Member for Falkirk, if he will take steps to help respond to his constituent, Hazel Fullard, regarding a decision on a tax credit payments.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The email has been passed to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). HMRC aim to reply as quickly as possible.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of creating a tax unregistered pensions scheme for senior NHS officials to help support the retention of NHS consultants who would otherwise retire early to avoid high tax costs.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Pensions tax relief is one of the most expensive reliefs in the personal tax system. In 2020/21 Income Tax and employer National Insurance Contributions relief cost £67.3 billion. The annual allowance helps to ensure that the highest earning pension savers do not receive a disproportionate benefit. 99 per cent of pension savers make annual contributions below £40,000, the level of standard annual allowance which has applied from 2014/15.
An unregistered scheme for the NHS would not benefit the vast majority of NHS staff, as members would receive no tax relief on their contributions.
The Government is committed to ensuring that hard-working NHS staff do not find themselves reducing their work commitments due to the interaction between their pay, their pension, and the relevant tax regime. On 22 September, the Government announced it will change elements of the NHS Pension Scheme to help retain doctors, nurses and other senior NHS staff, to increase capacity. These changes include:
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of his recent fiscal policies on the cost of living for households.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 8 September, government announced an ‘Energy Price Guarantee’, which means that a typical UK household will pay no more than £2500 a year on their energy bill over the next 2 years. This measure will save the average household around £1000 a year from October 2022.
In addition to this, the government has already announced £37 billion support for the cost of living this financial year – including a £400 discount for all households through the Energy Bills Support Scheme. The Chancellor has been clear that unleashing investment and growth is the only sustainable means of increasing living standards for all households.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Making Tax Digital reforms that require separate (a) records and (b) tax return submissions for each business on people with multiple small businesses who earn below the income tax threshold; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing those people to (i) submit a single tax return and (ii) utilise only one paid software subscription for all of their businesses.
Answered by Richard Fuller
As is currently the case for Income Tax Self Assessment, taxpayers will need to maintain separate records for each business that they operate, but under Making Tax Digital (MTD) these will need to be digital. This ensures that businesses maintain accurate records to support the updates and returns they make to HMRC.
Making quarterly updates through MTD compatible software is not the same as making quarterly tax returns and no accounting or tax adjustments are needed for these updates. Taxpayers will be able to submit these updates for each business directly from their digital records through the software.
HMRC expects a range of third-party software will be available to taxpayers and that many products will cater for users with multiple business income sources.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has further plans to support industries and professions affected by the cost of fuel following the lowering of fuel duty; and whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the RHA’s plan for an essential user rebate of 15p per litre on fuel duty.
Answered by Alan Mak - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade) (jointly with the Cabinet Office)
At Spring Statement 2022, in response to high fuel prices, the Government announced a temporary 12 month cut to duty on petrol and diesel of 5 pence per litre. This represents a tax cut worth around £2.4 billion in 2022-23, benefiting anyone who consumes fuel across the UK.
All taxes, including fuel duty, remain under review.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 16 June 2022 to Question 17079 on Car Allowances, if his Department will make an estimate of the number of employers who reimburse the actual mileage cost incurred rather than using Approved Mileage Allowance Payments; and if he will adjust the 45p per mile allowance.
Answered by Alan Mak - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade) (jointly with the Cabinet Office)
The Government sets the Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAP) rates to minimise administrative burdens. As set out in the answer to Question 17079, the AMAP rates are advisory and therefore employers are not required to use them.
AMAPs are reimbursed free from Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions. This is also the case when an employer chooses to reimburse the actual mileage cost or pay another rate where there is no profit element for the employee. These payments are not declared to HMRC. The Government does not have an estimate of the number of employers reimbursing the actual cost.
As with all taxes and allowances, the Government keeps the AMAP rates under review and any changes are considered by the Chancellor.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he plans to take to ensure that victims of financial abuse are not (a) disallowed from mortgages, (b) given poor credit ratings and (c) negatively impacted in other ways by the finance industry.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government is strongly committed to tackle financial exclusion and discrimination and aims for everyone, whatever their background or income, to be able to access useful and affordable financial products and services. The Government works closely together with regulators, the financial services industry and other stakeholders, to ensure that all consumers of financial services are appropriately protected.
Industry-agreed principles, rather than government policy, determine what and how information is shared between organisations and Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs). CRAs then hold this information on individuals’ credit files and use it to create a credit score.
Consumers can add a Notice (of up to 200 words) to their credit file explaining any circumstances, such as being a victim of financial abuse, that may impact decisions made about their applications for credit, including mortgages. Lenders should take the content of this Notice into account alongside the other information on the credit file. In addition, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is currently undertaking a Credit Information Market Study which is assessing how the sector is working now and how it may develop in the future. The FCA will publish an interim report in summer 2022.
The FCA is also currently developing a new Consumer Duty, which would require firms to place more emphasis on the needs of all customers, including those who are vulnerable or at risk of being financially excluded. The FCA is required to publish its final rules before the end of July.
Prior to this, in February 2021, the FCA also published its finalised guidance for firms on the fair treatment of vulnerable customers, setting out a number of best practices (https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/finalised-guidance/guidance-firms-fair-treatment-vulnerable-customers).
This applies to all firms where the FCA Principles for Business apply, regardless of sector and in respect of the supply of products or services to retail customers.