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Tax Returns

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the total sum (a) levied and (b) paid in fines for late submission of tax returns in each of the last four years. [26231]

Dawn Primarolo: The table shows the amounts for penalties raised by the Inland Revenue from late filing penalties on tax returns over the last four years and the total of fines paid, in each of those years. The Inland Revenue accounts for its receipts in accounts years running from November to October.

Inland Revenue£

Accounts year	Penalties raised	Penalties paid
1997	0	0
1998	113,200,000	18,085,069
1999	112,200,000	29,360,479
2000	118,400,000	32,960,556
Total	343,800,000	80,406,104

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people have been issued with personal tax returns by the Inland Revenue in each of the last five years. [26260]

Dawn Primarolo: The number of personal ITSA returns issued by the Inland Revenue in the last four years is as follows:

Return years	Issued to	Number
1996–97	31 March 1998	7,686,551
1996–97 and 1997–98	31 March 1999	8,399,694
1996–97, 1997–98 and 1998–99	31 March 2000	8,567,728
1996–976, 1997–98, 1998–99 and 1999–2000	31 March 2001	8,560,419

Figures for the current return years 2000–01 are not yet available.

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people were fined for late submission of their tax returns in each of the last four years; and what was the total of fines paid, including interest, in each of those years. [26337]

15 Jan 2002 : Column 241W

Dawn Primarolo: The table show the number of penalties raised by the Inland Revenue from late filing penalties on tax returns over the last four years and the total of penalties paid, in each of those years. There is no information available about the number of people fined. Interest on penalties cannot be distinguished separately so has not been included.

The Inland Revenue accounts for its receipts in accounts years running from November to October£

Accounts year	Penalties raised	Penalties paid
1997	0	0
1998	1,132,000	18,085,069
1999	1,122,000	29,360,479
2000	1,184,000	32,960,556
Total	3,438,000	80,406,104

Private Medical Insurance Tax Relief

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his estimate is of the cost of private medical insurance tax relief if (a) one million, (b) two million, (c) three million, (d) four million, (e) five million and (f) 10 million qualify for tax relief. [26265]

Dawn Primarolo: The cost of any income tax relief for private medical insurance would depend on a number of factors including the type of relief given, the exact requirements for qualification for the relief, as well as the numbers of individuals or policies qualifying. Consequently it is not possible to provide the estimates requested.

Redundancy Payments

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the tax reliefs available on redundancy payments. [26341]

Dawn Primarolo: Payments made to compensate an individual for being made redundant are exempt from income tax up to a limit of £30,000 and taxable beyond that.

Advance Corporation Tax

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the total advance corporation tax repayments made by the Inland Revenue were in the last financial year. [26287]

Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer given to him on 8 January 2002, Official Report, column 790W.

Hypothecation

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to introduce (a) full and (b) partial hypothecation of taxes. [26134]

Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr. Laws) on 6 December 2001, Official Report, column 526W.

15 Jan 2002 : Column 242W

Taxpayers (Traceability)

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many taxpayers there were for whom the ground for non-payment of tax in each of the last four years was that they were untraceable. [26236]

Dawn Primarolo: The tables show, for the years 1997 to 2000, the latest year available, the number of cases and amounts involved where tax was classed as irrecoverable because the taxpayer has become untraceable or has moved abroad.

Table 1: Untraceable

	Income Tax		Capital Gains Tax
Year	£	Cases	£	Cases
1997	39,110,709.17	39,906	1,459,842.88	194
1998	29,846,737.49	23,265	1,472,515.64	144
1999	23,557,517.41	16,364	1,695,508.31	99
2000	16,199,976.11	12,365	612,182.11	61

Table 2: Moved abroad

	Income Tax		Capital Gains Tax
Year	£	Cases	£	Cases
1997	7,663,933.70	4,844	580,057.07	111
1998	7,398.148.66	4,238	1,690,326.69	74
1999	6,012,605.04	2,572	351,713.29	47
2000	7,269,203.50	5,558	1,103.379.09	106

Tax Write-offs

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much tax was remitted or written off as irrecoverable in each of the last four years; and what was the number of taxpayers for whom the ground for non-payment was that they (a) had gone abroad or were untraceable, (b) were insolvent and (c) were suffering hardship. [26229]

Dawn Primarolo: The tables show, for the years 1997 to 2000, the latest year available, the number of cases and amounts involved where tax was classed as irrecoverable or was written off because the taxpayer was (a) untraceable or had moved abroad, (b) was insolvent, (c) was suffering hardship.

Table a: Taxpayer untraceable or moved abroad

	Income Tax		Capital Gains Tax
Year	£	Cases	£	Cases
1997	46,774,642.87	44,750	2,039,899.95	305
1998	37,244,886.15	27,503	3,162,842.33	218
1999	29,570,122.45	18,936	2,047,221.60	146
2000	23,469,179.61	17,923	1,715,561.20	167

Table b: Taxpayer insolvent

	Income Tax		Capital Gains Tax
Year	£	Cases	£	Cases
1997	306,630,972.66	99,813	10,352,690.11	1,030
1998	402,816,473.26	90,610	17,393,163.47	900
1999	358,843,664.48	82,327	10,764,638.35	683
2000	266,949,276.47	80,020	2,449,982.29	349

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Table c: Taxpayer suffering hardship

	Income Tax		Capital Gains Tax
Year	£	Cases	£	Cases
1997	2,084,183.53	3,660	0.00	0
1998	2,327,543.69	6,333	71,494.40	12
1999	2,190,979.15	3,404	2,492.40	1
2000	2,927,225.17	3,172	4,930.00	1

Corporation Tax

Mr. Gray: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the results were in terms of additional tax, duty, interest and penalties achieved in each of the last three years to 31 March 2001 (a) by Inland Revenue large business offices (corporation tax) as a whole expressed in terms of recoveries from individual taxpayers banded (i) £0 to £1 million, (ii) £1 million to £10 million, (iii) £10 million to £50 million, (iv) £50 million to £100 million, and (v) £100 million and above, and (b) by each of the geographic offices of the large business office (corporation tax) expressed as a total for that geographic office. [26842]

Dawn Primarolo: Inland Revenue Large Business Office (corporation tax) records the adjustments made to corporation tax profits as a result of its work and the estimated tax effect of each adjustment. The tables give the requested analyses of tax effect of adjustments for 1999–2000 and 2000–01. Detailed analyses for 1998–99, and analyses of related interest charges or penalties, are not available. The geographic analysis allocates yield to the office currently dealing with the relevant case: because of transfers of cases between offices that may reflect work done in a different large business office location.

Table (a)

	Number of adjustments	Total yield (£ million)
1999–2000
£0 to £1 million	4,483	503
£1 million to £10 million	304	784
£10 million to £50 million	26	527
£50 million to £100 million	1	59
£100 million+	0	0
2000–01
£0 to £1 million	4,038	518
£1 million to £10 million	318	861
£10 million to £50 million	13	262
£50 million to £100 million	1	100
£100 million+	2	398

Table (b)£ million

Office	1999–2000 yield	2000–01 yield
Bristol	85	163
City A	146	160
City B	52	58
City C	46	60
City D	288	174
City E	104	352
City F	5	8
Edinburgh	232	126
Glasgow	72	79
Leeds	70	96
Liverpool	57	77
Manchester	195	168
Nottingham	115	179
Peterborough	97	56
West Midlands	291	368
Cases no longer in the large business office	17	15

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