Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 31 January to Question 213405, what the total value of tax reliefs recorded by HMRC was in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013, (e) 2014, (f) 2015, (g) 2016, (h) 2017 and (i) 2018.

HMRC publishes statistics relating to estimates of the cost of tax reliefs annually:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tax-relief-statistics

However it is misleading to simply add up the cost of reliefs’ estimates in this table for various reasons:

1. Each relief is costed separately, but in many cases simply adding up these individual costs would not give the true combined cost of the reliefs.

2. These figures should be regarded as broad estimates as the loss of revenue from a tax relief cannot be directly observed and so the estimates are often based on simplified assumptions.

3. One table lists reliefs for which there is insufficient data available on which to base any reasonable estimate. In some cases, the costs of reliefs cannot be reliably estimated because there is insufficient available information and the cost of collecting the necessary data or the burden imposed on taxpayers would be disproportionate.

4. The figures do not allow for behavioural changes which could result from changes to the generosity of the reliefs. In practice, if a relief was withdrawn, taxpayer’s behaviour would often alter so the actual yield from withdrawing a relief could be very different from, and often much smaller than the estimate shown.