Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make it her policy to reduce the VAT (a) rate and (b) threshold for businesses that provide personal care services.

VAT is the UK’s second largest tax, forecast to raise £171 billion in 2024/25. At Autumn Budget 2024, the Government took a number of difficult but necessary decisions on tax, welfare, and spending to fix the public finances, fund public services, and restore economic stability.

At £90,000, the UK has a higher VAT registration threshold than any EU country and the joint highest in the OECD. This means the majority of UK businesses are out of the VAT system. Any consideration of changes to the threshold would have to carefully balance the potential benefits to small businesses, the economy as a whole, and tax revenues.