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28 Feb 2008 : Column 1938W—continued
Smuggling: Tobacco
Mr. Harper: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people had tobacco goods confiscated on entry to the UK in the last year for which figures are available; and how much tobacco was seized. [189866]
Jane Kennedy: This information is not held centrally.
For the 2006-07 financial year 228 tonnes of tobacco were seized. This, and other seizure information can be found in HMRC’s annual report.
Stamp Duties
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what revenue accrued to his Department from the payment of stamp duty in (a) England, (b) South East England and (c) London. [189306]
Angela Eagle: Stamp duty land tax receipts for each region of the UK can be obtained from:
Regional breakdowns of stamp duty receipts from residential property transactions for earlier years are available at:
Tax Credit Office: Administration
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 31 January 2008, Official Report, column 677W, on Tax Credit Office: administration, how many complaints were handled by the tax credit office in 2006-07. [189375]
Jane Kennedy: For the information requested I refer the hon. Member to the information published in Annex F of the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) departmental report presented to Parliament in May 2007 (cm7107) and available on the HMRC website at:
Taxation: Alcoholic Drinks
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent representations he has received from (a) the British Beer and Pub Association, (b) the Gin and Vodka Association, (c) the Scotch Whisky Association, (d) the Wine and Spirit Trade Association and (e) the National Association of Cider Makers on proposals to vary tax rates on alcoholic drinks. [190128]
Angela Eagle: Treasury Ministers and officials receive representations from a wide range of organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Government’s practice to provide details of all such representations.
Taxation: Gaming
Mr. Betts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the average effective tax rate is for online bingo games. [189731]
Angela Eagle: The way in which information is collected by HMRC does not allow it to identify separately duty paid in respect of online bingo. It is therefore not possible to give a reliable estimate of the average effective tax rate on online bingo.
Mr. Betts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent discussions (a) he and (b) other Treasury Ministers have had with representatives of the gaming industry on the effective tax rates for (a) bingo and (b) other gaming products. [189740]
Angela Eagle: Treasury Ministers and officials met with a wide range of organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Government’s practice to provide details of all such representations.
Taxation: Private Companies
Jon Trickett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what European Court of Justice rulings have resulted in the Government paying tax back to private companies in the last 10 years. [188887]
Jane Kennedy: There have been a considerable number of cases involving tax issues pursued before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) since 1998 and a complete list of the direct tax cases and indirect tax (VAT) cases may be found on the courts website at:
However HMRC does not keep records of the precise impact any ECJ judgments may have on either litigation pursued solely in the UK courts or on specific decisions that may have been taken in their dealings with individual taxpayers as a result of any such decision. It follows that there are no records held that would indicate what impact, if any, such decisions may have had in terms of paying tax back to private companies. The information requested could not be obtained except at disproportionate cost.
Taxation: Self-assessment
Mr. Andrew Smith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the reasons were for the online tax filing self-assessment service being out of action on 31 January. [189891]
Jane Kennedy: A total of over 204,000 customers were able to file online on 31 January, a record number. The problems arose because of a rapid and unexpected rise in access to the online service over a short period of time.
Mr. Andrew Smith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer on how many occasions and for what length of time the online tax filing service has been out of operation in the last six months. [189892]
Jane Kennedy: Between the 1 August 2007 and the 31 January 2008 the SA online filing service was out of operation on 19 separate occasions for an overall total of 113 hours. Ten of these disruptions and 62 of the total hours were for planned and essential maintenance and upgrades by either HMRC or the Government Gateway. Other disruptions to the service were as a result of technical failures.
Mr. Andrew Smith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps have been taken to rectify the problems with the online tax self-assessment system which occurred at the end of January. [189893]
Jane Kennedy: In April 2008 IT updates for the SA online system will remove the dependency on the infrastructure that failed as part of a planned improvement to the system. In addition, HMRC are reviewing their regime for performance testing of online services to improve the rigour around the testing of peak demands.
VAT: Charitable Donations
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make it his policy to make charity text donations VAT free. [190056]
Jane Kennedy: Donations to charity, including those made by text message, are outside the scope of VAT—which means that no VAT is payable on them.
However, VAT is chargeable in the normal way on charges made by telecoms providers for text services. This reflects the requirements of the European VAT agreements signed by successive Governments.
Welfare Tax Credits
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many people have been incorrectly awarded tax credits, excluding cases of deliberate fraud, in each of the last 10 years; [189299]
(2) what the total value of incorrectly awarded tax credits was in each of the last 10 years. [190583]
Jane Kennedy: I refer the hon. Member to the error and fraud statistics published on the HM Revenue and Customs website at:
Welfare Tax Credits: Labour Turnover
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the annual percentage rate of staff turnover was for staff working on tax credits in each year since 2003. [187623]
Jane Kennedy: The information is available only at disproportionate cost as HM Revenue and Customs employ staff in various parts of the Department to work on different aspects of tax credits work.
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