House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 6 Oct 2003 (pt 27)

6 Oct 2003 : Column 1096W—continued

Rented Properties

Mr. Gardiner: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the financial benefits to the Exchequer of creating a bond payment scheme for tenants living in rented properties. [131127]

John Healey: No assessment has been made of the financial benefits to the Exchequer of creating a bond payment scheme for tenants living in rented properties.

Research and Development Tax Credit

Mr. Flight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the cost arising from cash repayments and enhanced deductions of the research and development tax credit in 2000–01. [131042]

Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 18 September 2003]: For companies claiming the R&D tax credit for small or medium-sized companies in 2000–01, the cost to the Exchequer was £75 million.

Personal Expenditure

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his latest estimates are of the proportion of income paid in (a) income tax, (b) income tax and national insurance contributions, (c) income tax, NICs and value added tax and (d) income tax, NICs, vat and council tax for each income decile for each year since 1990–91; and if he will make a statement. [130557]

Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Karen Dunnell to Mr. David Laws, dated 30 September 2003:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question on estimates of the proportion of income paid in (a) income tax, (b) income tax and national insurance contributions, (NICs), (c) income tax, NICs and value added tax (VAT) and (d) income tax, NICs, VAT and council tax, for each income decile for each year since 1990–91. I am replying in his absence. (130557)

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Due to changes in some survey variables, consistent estimates for UK taxes and income are only available with effect from the financial year 1996–97. These are produced from the Office for National Statistics' analysis "The effects of taxes and benefits on household income" and the latest analysis for 2001–02 was published on 11 April 2003 on the National Statistics website.

Results for 2001–02 and earlier years are also published in 'Economic Trends', which can be obtained from the House of Commons Library. The analysis includes measures of income inequality for the United Kingdom as a whole based on data from the Expenditure and Food Survey (EPS), formerly the Family Expenditure Survey (FES). For the data that you have requested, sample sizes are only sufficient to allow a breakdown to be given by quintiles of income distribution and not by decile.

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Tables 1 to 6 show for each year between 1996–97 and 2001–02 the requested direct and indirect taxes paid as a proportion of gross income for all households in the UK, and for each income quintile group where households are ranked by equivalised disposable income. Equivalisation is a standard methodology that takes into account the size and composition of households and adjusts their incomes to recognise differing demands on resources. The net council tax figures are gross council tax less reported council tax benefits and discounts. The tables also show the equivalised disposable income quintile point boundaries, which have been calculated separately for each year. For example, the 1st quintile point is the income below which one fifth of all households are estimated to lie. The quintile point boundaries differ between each year as shown in the tables.

Table 1: Selected direct and indirect taxes paid as a percentage of gross income by equivalised disposable income quintile, 1996–97United Kingdom % of gross income

Quintile	Income boundary⁽²⁶⁾(£ per year)	Income tax	Income tax and national insurance contributions (NIC)	Income tax, NICand value addedtax (VAT)	Income tax, NIC, VAT and council tax


Bottom		3.2	4.6	14.7	17.9
	8,031
2nd		5.9	8.5	17.0	19.7
	11,344
3rd		10.0	14.2	21.9	24.2
	15,519
4th		12.9	17.9	24.9	26.8
	21,964
Top		17.4	21.5	27.0	28.4
Average for all households		12.9	17.0	23.8	25.7

⁽²⁶⁾ Boundary point between equivalised disposable income quintiles

Source: