Letter from Mr David Varney, Chairman,
HM Revenue and Customs to Chairman, Committee of Public Accounts
In anticipation of the Committee's scheduled
oral evidence session on 14 November 2005 in respect of the Comptroller
and Auditor General's Report on Filing of Income Tax Self Assessment
Returns please find attached information updating some of the
statistics within the Report.
UPDATES TO
FILING STATISTICS
— At July 2005, there were around
1.1 million overdue returns (all previous Self Assessment tax
years).
[Report reference: Executive Summary 6, paragraph
2.3 and footnote 6.]
— At July 2005, there were around
240,000 taxpayers with two or more returns outstanding, and 11,000
with 6 or more returns outstanding.
[Report reference: Executive Summary 10 and
paragraph 2.14.]
— At July 2005, there were around
85,000 taxpayers subject to tracing action by the Department.
[Report reference: Executive Summary 10,
paragraph 2.18 and figure 11.]
— At July 2005, there were around
34,000 taxpayers with two or more returns outstanding who were
insolvent or living abroad.
[Report reference: Executive Summary 10,
paragraph 2.18 and figure 11.]
— The 2004-05 level of accuracy
in processing returns and value of undercharging and overcharging
errors were:
2004-05 processing accuracy was 95%;
2005 undercharging errors totalled £64.8
million;
2005 overcharging errors totalled £30.2
million;
2005 total tax effect was £95 million;
2005 PAYE coding accuracy was 73.3% which equates
to 2,046,976 errors.
(The number of coding errors is the estimated
number of errors and not the number of taxpayers affected. We
estimate the number of Self Assessment taxpayers in 2004-05 with
coding errors was 1.4 million.)
— [Report reference: Executive
Summary 16 and paragraph 3.11.]
— Around 500,000 returns due on
31 January 2005 for the 2003-04 tax year were still outstanding
at 31 July 2005.
[Report reference: paragraph 2.3 and footnote
6]
30 September filing figures
— The Department estimates that
the number of 2004-05 returns filed by 30 September 2005 was 3,713,322,
which includes 641,000 (585,000 last year) filed online. The management
information supporting this figure will be verified in the next
few weeks.
The number of returns filed by 30 September
is 720,000 less than the same period as last year. This can be
substantially attributed to the change in criteria for filing
a tax return and the consequent removal of about 1.1 million of
our most compliant customers.
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