Food: VAT Exemptions

(asked on 6th February 2018) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people received relief from VAT on food in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2016-17 and (c) 2017-18.


Answered by
Mel Stride Portrait
Mel Stride
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
This question was answered on 20th February 2018

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) publishes figures for the estimated costs of these reliefs based on expenditure data, usually from external sources such as the Office for National Statistics. (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tax-relief-statistics)

However, HMRC is unable to determine how many taxpayers have claimed a VAT relief. This is because the details that HMRC collects from the taxpayer on their VAT return are not specific enough to provide the data required.

We also publish figures on the number of claims for VAT refunds (but not ‘people’) in respect of self-builders in the annual VAT factsheet here (Table 1.5) https://www.uktradeinfo.com/Statistics/Statistical Factsheets/VAT_Factsheet_17.xls. This shows there were over 6,500 claims in 2016-17 with total refunds of £77m.

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