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The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
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Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2020/21”
Meeting date: 12 May 2022
Colin Beattie
Given that there is devolution across the different nations, you would expect that some effective work would be taking place so that individual figures could be given for individual nations.
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2020/21”
Meeting date: 12 May 2022
Colin Beattie
I remain of the opinion that the aggregate totals for all the estimates, workarounds and so on must be significant, which is a concern.
I will move on to the specific issue of missing Scottish postcodes, which you have touched on. My concern is that the number had increased from 13,708 to 23,351 when the NAO last reported. That is a 70 per cent increase, although the point has been made that the figure represents something like 1 per cent of the population. However, the concern is that those missing taxpayers can equate to a fairly large sum of money in tax, especially if they turn out to be individuals with a high net worth.
I have three questions. What is behind the increase in the number of missing Scottish postcodes? What is the impact on revenues likely to be? What is HMRC doing to fix the issue?
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2020/21”
Meeting date: 12 May 2022
Colin Beattie
You did not indicate the scale of any impact on revenue.
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2020/21”
Meeting date: 12 May 2022
Colin Beattie
Westminster’s Public Accounts Committee has reported on HMRC’s management of tax debt, particularly in relation to the Covid period. The committee came up with a number of conclusions that it set out in six bullet points, some of which are quite strongly worded. It says:
“We are not satisfied that HMRC has a clear plan to tackle the mountain of tax debt which has built up during the pandemic ... HMRC is not being ambitious enough in bringing down debt levels and securing the resources this will require ... Rogue companies are exploiting the pandemic to profit at the expense of taxpayers.”
Scotland will not be exempt from that last issue, I am sure. The report continues:
“HMRC is far behind where it needs to be in making good use of data to manage debt effectively ... HMRC is not using all relevant data sources to understand how the pandemic is affecting taxpayer’s ability to repay.”
Finally, it says:
“We are concerned that HMRC is not doing enough to identify vulnerable people who need extra support with their debts.”
Has HMRC accepted those conclusions?
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2020/21”
Meeting date: 12 May 2022
Colin Beattie
I am sorry—what does that mean?
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2020/21”
Meeting date: 12 May 2022
Colin Beattie
Therefore, HMRC has not accepted the findings of the committee report.
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2020/21”
Meeting date: 12 May 2022
Colin Beattie
Do we have any specific figures on that for Scotland?
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2020/21”
Meeting date: 12 May 2022
Colin Beattie
There is a fairly long list of estimates and workarounds in the NAO report. Do most of those exist for income tax in the rest of the UK or are they specific to Scotland, because of the way in which the settlement has been done?
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2020/21”
Meeting date: 12 May 2022
Colin Beattie
Jonathan Athow, you said that the figure that you gave represented 0.1 per cent of taxpayers. Is it not 1 per cent?
Public Audit Committee
“Administration of Scottish income tax 2020/21”
Meeting date: 12 May 2022
Colin Beattie
Has HMRC responded to the committee report?
