Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people requested their tax repayments to be considered under HMRC's Time to Pay system in (a) November 2019 and (b) November 2020.

HMRC’s “Self Service Time to Pay” online payment plan (SSTTP) enables Self-Assessment taxpayers to set up an instalment plan to pay their Self-Assessment liabilities, without the need to contact HMRC directly.

This service was previously available to those Self-Assessment taxpayers with liabilities of up to £10,000. On 24 September 2020 the Chancellor announced that the £10,000 threshold was being increased to £30,000 to increase support for businesses and individuals. Taxpayers using this service can have up to 12 monthly instalments to pay their Self-Assessment tax liabilities.

In the period 1 November to 30 November 2019, 109 SSTTP arrangements were set up, to pay Self-Assessment liabilities totalling £295,092. In the period 1 November to 30 November 2020, 5,248 SSTTP arrangements were set up, to pay Self-Assessment liabilities totalling £12,291,633.