Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many inquiries were raised into the corporation tax returns of companies submitted in each (a) 2012-13, (b) 2013-14, (c) 2014-15, (d) 2015-16 and (e) 2016-17; how many of those resulted in additional tax being due in each year; what that sum of additional tax due was by tax year; and what part of that additional tax due was paid by in each tax year.

Corporate tax compliance activity is represented across many different areas of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the majority of which takes place in HMRC’s Customer Compliance Group.

The data below represents the approximate number of inquiries opened into Corporation Tax by HMRC’s Customer Compliance Group:

2012-2013 - 9,477

2013-2014 - 7,134

2014-2015 - 13,408

2015-2016 - 14,346

2016-2017 - 14,507

The compliance yield solely from Corporation Tax inquiries closed in the following years is represented below:

2012-2013 - £4.5bn

2013-2014 - £5.2bn

2014-2015 - £3.9bn

2015-2016 - £3.1bn

2016-2017 - £4.0bn

This does not include the additional Corporation Tax resulting from the Product and Process component of HMRC’s compliance activity. Product and Process Yield is the estimated annual impact on net tax receipts of legislative changes to close tax loopholes and changes to our processes which reduce opportunities to avoid or evade tax.

These figures also exclude payments of £100m in 14-15 and £943m in 15-16 following Accelerated Payment Notices issued to the largest businesses.

Comparisons should not be made between the numbers of cases opened and the yield amount for the corresponding year. This is because it can take several months to work a case and inquiries opened in a specific year will not necessarily be closed, or settled, in the same year.

There are currently around 26,000 people working in HMRC’s Customer Compliance Group tackling all forms of non-compliance in the tax system– ranging from individuals operating in the hidden economy, through to detailed investigation of offshore structures and scrutinising the tax affairs of the largest multi-national companies. This resource gives HMRC the capability to effectively tackle compliance risks.

It is not possible to provide a breakdown of how many staff are employed on corporation tax inquiries.