Taxation: Debts Written Off

(asked on 26th April 2018) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much tax was written off by HMRC for (a) individuals and (b) businesses due to them becoming insolvent and HMRC constituting an unsecured creditor in each year since 2010.


Answered by
Mel Stride Portrait
Mel Stride
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
This question was answered on 1st May 2018

HMRC does not hold information on how much tax was written off for individuals and businesses due to Insolvency and HMRC constituting an unsecured creditor. HMRC is able to provide totals of write offs due to insolvency (including death no estate) for 2015/16 to 2017/18 covering tax, tax credits and penalties. Figures (to the nearest thousand) are as follows:

Gross Write Off

Dividends received post Insolvency

Net Write Off

2015-16

3,129,169,000

121,249,000

3,007,920,000

2016-17

3,489,414,000

159,782,000

3,329,632,000

2017-18

3,292,972,000

149,623,000

3,143,349,000

Unfortunately HMRC is not able to provide this detail for earlier years because the data was recorded in a different format.

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