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12 Feb 2009 : Column 2144W—continued
Revenue and Customs: Fines
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what administrative financial penalties may be levied by HM Revenue and Customs. [253601]
Mr. Timms: HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) administer almost 20 different taxes and duties and several other collection and payment regimes such as tax credits, national insurance and child benefit. All of the regimes make provision for administrative financial penalties to underpin compliance.
Financial penalties are levied to address non-compliant behaviour in the following areas:
Failure to notify taxable activity;
Late filing or non-filing of returns;
Late or non-payment of taxes, duties and national insurance contributions;
Errors on returns due to negligence, carelessness or deliberate action;
Failure to provide information or to make business premises and records available for inspection;
Regime specific contraventions such as unauthorised issue of VAT invoices or unauthorised use of a customs warehouse.
The numerous existing regime specific penalties are being replaced by a smaller number of new generic administrative financial penalties, with no penalty charged for mistakes where the taxpayer has taken reasonable care. Significant reductions will be available for those who make unprompted disclosures, with smaller reductions for prompted disclosures. Most penalties will be charged as a percentage of the tax under-declared.
Revenue and Customs: North West
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the number of redundancies arising from the proposed closure of the HM Revenue and Customs offices at (a) Regian
House, Liverpool, (b) Dukes House, Southport and (c) Birchen House, Birkenhead. [256520]
Mr. Timms: HMRC announced the planned closure of these three offices in February 2008. While we cannot rule out compulsory redundancies, our aim is to avoid them as far as is reasonably possible, and there have been none so far.
We have set up implementation teams to consider when and how to implement closures and other office changes. They will seek a solution for each member of staff affected, with the first choice being to transfer to another HMRC office. The teams will consult with staff and local unions and advise and support managers and staff affected by planned closures.
Taxation: Personal Savings
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much tax has been repatriated to the UK by each country adopting the withholding tax option under the EU Savings Tax Directive. [255258]
Mr. Timms: The amounts of tax paid to the United Kingdom by those countries adopting withholding tax under the terms of the European savings directive or equivalent agreements with third party jurisdictions for the years 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 are set out in the following tables.
The withholding tax regime is a transitional mechanism. The UK strongly supports, and is promoting internationally, transparency through exchange of information as the way forward in combating cross-border tax evasion.
| UK tax year 2005-06, as at January 2009 | ||||
| Amount of withholding tax | ||||
| Country | £ | € | $ | Swiss Frs |
| UK tax year 2006-07, as at January 2009 | ||||
| Amount of withholding tax | ||||
| Country | £ | € | $ | Swiss Frs |
| UK tax year 2007-08, as at January 2009 | ||||
| Amount of withholding tax | ||||
| Country | £ | € | $ | Swiss Frs |
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