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14 May 2008 : Column 1623W—continued
Excise Duties: Motor Vehicles
Mr. Drew: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what factors were taken into account in making the decision to remove the exemption from higher rates of vehicle excise duty from vehicles first registered after March 2001; what consultation he undertook before removing the exemption; and if he will make a statement. [205019]
Angela Eagle: Budget 2008 announced reform of the Vehicle Excise Duty structure with new rate bands from 2009 and a new higher first-year rate from 2010 to influence purchasing choices. The Government's policy on exemptions from Vehicle Excise Duty has remained unchanged and existing nil rates will remain in force.
The Government take rates decisions as part of the routine Budget process. Budget 2008 decisions will therefore introduce rates from 2009-10 which are appropriate and apply consistently to all cars across the emissions spectrum—the more polluting the vehicle, the more vehicle excise duty it will pay. In taking such rates decisions the Government considers a range of factors, including relevant environmental, social and economic factors.
Mr. Amess: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) which (a) cars and (b) vans will be subject to an increase in vehicle excise duty in the 2009-10 financial year, broken down by (i) make and model of vehicle and (ii) size of engine; and if he will make a statement; [205303]
(2) what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Transport on the proposed increase in excise duty on certain vehicles in the next financial year; and if he will make a statement. [205304]
Angela Eagle: The information requested on each individual variant of each model of car or van could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Individual vehicle owners may determine the rate applicable to their vehicle in 2009-10 by reference to the vehicle's registration document and table A8a of the Budget report. In addition, cars that emit more than 225 g CO2 per km but were first registered before 23 March 2006 will be placed in Band K in 2009-10—and will continue to benefit from a reduced rate, and only in 2010-11 will these cars be placed into the band (L or M) that corresponds to the car's actual CO2 emissions.
Treasury Ministers engage with their ministerial colleagues in shared policy areas as a matter of routine as part of the process of policy development and delivery.
Fuels: Aviation
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the revenue which would accrue in 2008-09 if value added tax were levied on aviation fuel at 17.5 per cent. [205195]
Jane Kennedy: VAT is already charged on aviation fuel supplied for flights within the UK at either the standard rate of 17.5 per cent or reduced rate of 5 per cent. depending on the type and quantity of fuel being supplied. However, under the normal rules of VAT, the tax charged can be reclaimed by a VAT registered airline or other business to the extent that it relates to their taxable business activities.
Aviation fuel supplied for use on intra-community or international flights is VAT zero-rated. However, even if our international agreements allowed the UK to impose VAT it could also be reclaimed subject to the normal rules.
HM Revenue and Customs does not hold sufficient information with which to make an estimate of the revenue that would otherwise accrue.
Income Tax: Low Incomes
Mark Hunter: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the number of households in (a) the United Kingdom, (b) England, (c) Greater Manchester, (d) Stockport Borough and (e) Cheadle constituency which will be (i) better off, (ii) worse off and (iii) unaffected as a result of the abolition of the 10 pence starting rate of income tax. [200418]
Jane Kennedy [ h olding answer 23 April 2008 ]: The removal of the 10p rate is part of a package of reforms announced in Budget 2007.
It is not possible to estimate the impact of the reform package below Government office region level.
National Insurance Contributions
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the revenue that would be raised in 2008-09 if the upper limit on national insurance contributions were abolished. [205248]
Jane Kennedy: The yield from removing the upper earnings limit for employees Class 1 National Insurance contributions is around £8.5 billion for 2008-09. This estimate includes the yield from the consequent increase in the upper profit limit for Class 4 contributions paid by the self employed, and the cost of the increase in employee and employer rebates for contracting out of state second pension.
This excludes any estimate of behavioural effects which could be significant given the scale of the change.
The estimate is consistent with Budget 2008 assumptions and assumes that the NHS allocation contribution rates are unchanged.
Non-domestic Rates: Licensed Premises
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 8 January 2008, Official Report, columns 509-10W, on valuation: licensed premises, if he will place in the Library the latest edition of the full Rating Manual. [204870]
Jane Kennedy: The Rating Manual is available on the Valuation Office Agency’s website (www.voa.gov.uk).
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 8 January 2008 , Official Report, columns 509-10W, on valuation: licensed premises, whether the section of the Rating Manual has been rewritten. [204871]
Jane Kennedy: The Rating Manual section on public houses, licensed restaurants and wine bars is being rewritten in conjunction with preparations for the 2010 Revaluation. It is intended to have this complete by the end of October this year. At that time it will be published on the Valuation Office Agency’s website to replace the existing section.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will place in the Library a copy of the Valuation Office Agency’s document Valuation of Public Houses: Approved Guide in use for the 2010 non-domestic rates revaluation. [204891]
Jane Kennedy: No such document currently exists.
Part-time Employment: Students
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate (a) his Department and (b) HM Revenue and Customs has made of the number of full-time students who receive an income from working part-time. [204889]
Jane Kennedy: Based on figures published by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, HM Revenue and Customs estimates that 1.7 million students in full-time education were in employment for part of the year during 2004-05 and 2005-06.
Revenue and Customs: Correspondence
Joan Walley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the average time taken was for letters to be sent out by HM Revenue and Customs arising from enquiries to their 0845 enquiry numbers in the latest period for which figures are available. [203309]
Jane Kennedy: The requested information is not available. However HM Revenue and Customs aim to deal with 80 per cent. of general correspondence within 15 working days of receipt and 95 per cent. within 40 working days.
Stamp Duties
Mr. Pickles:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 21 April 2008, Official Report, columns 1684-85W, on stamp duties, whether
an impact assessment was produced in relation to introducing charging by an energy assessor to assess whether a dwelling meets the standard. [204881]
Kitty Ussher: There is not a separate impact assessment on charges to assess whether a dwelling meets the zero-carbon standard for the purposes of the stamp duty land tax relief. However, an impact assessment was published at Budget 2007 when details of the stamp duty land tax relief for new zero-carbon homes was announced. This can be found on HMRC’s website at:
Stamp Duty Land Tax: Shared Ownership Schemes
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 21 April 2008, Official Report, columns 1685-86W, on stamp duty land tax: shared ownership schemes (1) whether (a) Social Homebuy and (b) New Build Homebuy are shared ownership or shared equity schemes for the purposes of the stamp duty land tax rule; [204880]
(2) whether the homebuyer, when purchasing the final 20 per cent. of the equity, having previously purchased up to 80 per cent., will be required to pay stamp duty on 100 per cent. of the property’s total capital value or only the final 20 per cent. [204882]
Kitty Ussher: Both social homebuy and new build homebuy are shared ownership schemes.
When the homebuyer in a shared ownership arrangement purchases the final 20 per cent. of a property, having previously purchased 80 per cent. free of SDLT, they will only pay stamp duty land tax on the final 20 per cent. of the property.
State Retirement Pensions
Danny Alexander: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the cost of restoring the link between the basic state pension and earnings in each year between 2009 and 2015. [200259]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: I have been asked to reply.
Current baseline projections of expenditure on pensioner benefits assume that the basic state pension is increased by earnings from 2012. The net additional cost of increasing the basic state pension by earnings from 2009 in each year between 2009-10 and 2015-16 is given in the table as follows:
Taxation
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his Department’s technical definition of a revenue-neutral tax change is. [204873]
Jane Kennedy: A tax policy change is revenue-neutral if the net total of the change does not result in a change in forecast Exchequer receipts over the forecast period. All tax policy changes with revenue implications of more than £5 million a year over the forecast period are set out in table A1 of the Financial Statement and Budget Report.
Taxation: Aviation
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent discussions he has had with Ministerial colleagues on levels of aviation duty on flights between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. [204417]
Angela Eagle: At pre-Budget report 2007, the Government announced that they intended to replace air passenger duty with a duty payable per plane, rather than per passenger. This reform will take place on 1 November 2009 and has the objective of sending better environmental signals, and also ensuring that aviation makes a greater contribution to covering its environmental costs, while ensuring that a fair level of revenue is raised from the sector in order to support public services.
The public consultation on the design of the new duty opened on 31 January 2008 and closed on 24 April. The Government have received a number of responses to date, including one from the Northern Ireland Executive. All of these responses—including that from the Northern Ireland—will be carefully analysed by HM Treasury before final announcements on the design of the duty are made.
Taxation: Interest Charges
Mr. Hoban: To askther Chancellor of the Exchequer how many complaints HM Revenue and Customs received in respect of late payment interest charges on tax payments which were not late in the latest 12 month period for which figures are available. [204924]
Jane Kennedy: The information requested is not available centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
HMRC processes payments and updates customers' accounts within 24 hours of receiving them in the vast majority of cases.
In a small number of cases, we are unable to credit customers' accounts immediately, usually because the payment is received with insufficient information, for example, if the payment reference number has been omitted or is not shown correctly.
In such cases the payments are allocated to a suspense account while enquiries are made to establish the account or record that is to be credited. Where such a payment is made on the due date for the tax, it is therefore possible that interest will be charged while the payment is in the suspense account. However, once the payment is allocated correctly the interest charge will be cancelled.
Every payment application or Notice to Pay issued by HMRC carries full 'How to pay' guidance. This clearly sets out the information needed to allocate payments correctly. An expanded version of this guidance is available on the HMRC website and is accessible on www.hmrc.co.uk. Any customer with queries on interest charges raised can phone the Payment Helpline for advice.
Taxation: Land
Mr. Pickles: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer what research (a) his Department and (b) its agencies have conducted into land value taxation. [204890]
Jane Kennedy: The Treasury has responsibility for tax policy. The Treasury keeps a range of tax options under consideration in the course of its policy making process.
Valuation Office
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 17 March 2008, Official Report, column 899W, on the Valuation Office, what the value impact, in numerical terms, of each value significant code is, as identified during the calibration of the Valuation Office Agency’s automated valuation model. [203121]
Jane Kennedy: This information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 17 October 2007, Official Report, column 1144W, on the Valuation Office, on what dates other than 22 November 2005 the Valuation Office Agency’s Council Tax Revaluation Programme Board (England) has met. [204872]
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