Consultation outcome

Responses to publication-specific feedback

Updated 30 March 2023

1. Income Tax, National Insurance contributions, tax credits and Child Benefit statistics for non-UK nationals

1.1 Feedback summary

We received 2 responses related to the Income Tax, National Insurance contributions (NICs), tax credits and Child Benefit statistics for non-UK nationals publication. Both users agreed to discontinue the statistics on tax credits but would find it useful (but not essential) to continue the statistics for Income Tax and NICs for non-UK nationals.

1.2 HMRC’s consultation response

The Income Tax, NICs, tax credits and Child Benefit statistics for non-UK nationals publication will be discontinued. The final release for this publication was on 25 August 2022.

2. Insurance Premium Tax

2.1 Feedback summary

We received one response related to the Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) publication which was supportive of the proposed changes to reduce the frequency of the IPT publication from bi-annual to annual by dropping the winter publication and keeping the summer publication, and in doing so allow for the prompter publication of full financial year statistics.

2.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We will reduce the frequency of the IPT publication to an annual basis. We will cease the publication of the winter IPT publication and the final release for this publication was on 31 January 2023.

3. Monthly property transactions

3.1 Feedback summary

We received 3 responses related to the Monthly property transactions publication. All responses were supportive of the proposed changes to delay its monthly timing slightly to the end of the month and some offered ways to help us deliver on them.

3.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We will change the date of the monthly property transactions publication. Our preference for this is to move it to the end of the month as per the original proposal, and we will work with those that provide data into that process and ensure it works in the most efficient way across those parties and related publications.

4. Government revenue from UK oil and gas production

4.1 Feedback summary

We received one response, which was in favour of shifting the publication of statistics on government revenues from UK oil and gas production from July to September each year from 2023 onwards, to enable us to include North Sea Transition Authority statistics on remaining decommissioning costs.

4.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We will shift publication of the government revenues from UK oil and gas production statistics from July to September, from 2023 onwards.

5. Income Tax liabilities statistics

5.1 Feedback summary

We received 2 responses. One response did not object to ceasing the publication of table 2.7. The second response sought clarification on the language used around the ‘majority’ of tax credit claimants having already moved to Universal Credit.

5.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We will cease producing updates of table 2.7 of the Income Tax liabilities statistics but will keep the time series published to date available on the publication page. HMRC has data suggesting that over two-thirds of tax credit claimants have already moved to Universal Credit and we think that this represents a high enough proportion to support the original proposal due to the table being redundant.

6. Private pension statistics

6.1 Feedback summary

We received one response that agreed with our proposal to discontinue table 1. We received 3 responses that agreed with our proposal to stop producing the breakdowns of contributions to pension schemes and members into schemes which are employer-sponsored and non-employer-sponsored, and for stakeholders and non-stakeholders in tables 2.1 and 2.2. One response opposed discontinuation of this information unless similar breakdowns are made available. Two users made suggestions about the methodology and presentation of the Private pension statistics.

6.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We will cease publication of table 1 on reported individual contributions made to personal pensions and retirement annuity contracts (RACs). We will reduce the scope of tables 2.1 and 2.2 by removing the breakdowns of contributions to pension schemes and members into schemes which are employer-sponsored and non-employer-sponsored, and for stakeholders and non-stakeholders. We will continue to make improvements to our methodology, presentation, and explanation of the statistics, building on those made in the September 2022 release.

7. Annual savings statistics

7.1 Feedback summary

We received one response for our Annual savings statistics, which was in favour of ceasing the publication of statistics on local authority and constituency breakdowns of the number of Help to Save accounts opened.

7.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We will cease producing geographic breakdowns of the number of Help to Save accounts opened.

8. Creative industries statistics

8.1 Feedback summary

We received two responses for our Creative industries statistics, which confirmed the importance of the publication but offered no specific objections to the removal of tables 1.1, 2.1, 3.1, 4.1 and 5.1. One respondent was in favour of using the accruals basis over receipts basis.

8.2 HMRC’s consultation response

From the next publication we will no longer publish tables 1.1, 2.1, 3.1, 4.1 and 5.1. We will also publish the remaining tables on an accruals basis only.

9. Research and Development Tax Credits

9.1 Feedback summary

We received 10 responses to our proposal to discontinue the publication of supplementary tables in our Research and Development Tax Credits statistics. A number of users highlighted the value of certain tables which are used by a variety of stakeholders.

In particular, there was opposition to discontinuing the detailed breakdowns for both region and sector, and the region by sector tables. Five responses mentioned the importance of providing region by sector breakdowns, 5 respondents opposed ending the detailed sector breakdowns, and 3 respondents opposed ending the detailed regional breakdowns. One respondent was content with discontinuing the publication of supplementary tables.

The proposal also considered that some supplementary tables could be included in the main publication if they are important to users. Two responses mentioned that including supplementary tables in the September publication, instead of April, would improve timeliness of the information HMRC publishes.

9.2 HMRC’s consultation response

The April publication of supplementary tables will be discontinued. We will instead include the supplementary tables that are most important to users in the main publication, in September. Tables RDS1 (detailed regional breakdowns), RDS2 (region by sector) and RDS3 (two-level sector breakdowns) will be included in the next publication, due in September 2023. We will no longer publish tables RDS4 and RDS5.

This means that instead of publishing supplementary tables covering 2020 to 2021 in April 2023, they will be published in the main publication in September 2023, alongside information covering 2021 to 2022. However, in the long term this change will improve the timeliness of the information in the supplementary tables.

10. Child and Working Tax Credits error and fraud statistics

10.1 Feedback summary

We received 2 responses for our Child and Working Tax Credits error and fraud statistics, which were in favour of reducing the coverage of the statistics.

10.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We will produce the 2021 to 2022 error and fraud estimate with reduced coverage as outlined in the consultation, including the headline estimate and main reasons for error and fraud.

11. Overseas trade in goods statistics

11.1 Feedback summary

We received 5 responses, 4 of which supported the reduction of commentary of the UK overseas trade in goods statistics and other statistical releases relating to trade. One respondent wanted to keep the commentary of a similar length.

Other suggestions were that we do not reduce the detail of the methodological notes that form part of a release, that we produce an annual publication, and that we include a regional breakdown.

11.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We will continue with our intention to produce a shorter release in line with meeting the requirements of the majority of respondents.

The methodological notes will continue to be an important part of the release, though will sit as a separate link on the releases’ landing page. The notes will be continually reviewed to ensure they are accessible, understandable and relevant for users. We will also highlight any major methodology changes at the top of each commentary and direct the reader to the more detailed notes should they require that detail.

We already publish a summary of annual data (calendar year basis) that is published alongside the relevant December release. We will add the relevant link across to the annual product from the UK overseas trade in goods statistics, increasing awareness and improving accessibility for our users.

We already publish regional products quarterly at UK region (ITL1) level, and annually at ITL2 and ITL3. These geographical breakdowns have been agreed following previous consultation and follow Government Statistical Service guidelines. Again, we will add the relevant links across to the regional products from the UK overseas trade in goods statistics, increasing awareness and improving accessibility for our users.

12. Corporation Tax receipts, liabilities and Bank Levy

12.1 Feedback summary

We received 3 responses which offered no objections to moving to use Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes for sectoral breakdowns of corporation tax receipts in the Corporation Tax receipts and liabilities statistics.

12.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We are currently testing the use of the SIC tables internally and will make a decision over the summer on how to display these in the publication.

13. Payrolled employments in the UK by region, industry and nationality

13.1 Feedback summary

We received 5 responses for our Payrolled employments in the UK by region, industry and nationality statistics, which were all in favour of expanding the coverage to include age, individual nationality and number of years since arrival. Some users also suggested including further geographical breakdown to NUTS2 (ITL2). There was a mixed response about moving to a six-monthly publication, as users would prefer a more granular analysis annually than heavily aggregated analysis every 6 months.

13.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We will look to expand the coverage of the Payrolled employments in the UK, by region, industry and nationality statistics to include age, individual nationality (grouping countries as necessary for disclosure reasons) and number of years since arrival. We will explore whether to do further geographical breakdowns to NUTS2 (ITL2). We will weigh up the benefits of moving to a six-monthly publication.

14. Child Benefit Statistics

14.1 Feedback summary

We received 2 responses which were in favour of combining the Annual Child Benefits Statistics and Child Benefit Small Area Data publications and expanding the coverage.

14.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We will consolidate the Annual Child Benefit Statistics and Child Benefit Small Area Data statistics into one publication to be published in April 2023. The publication will include expanded sections on High Income Child Benefit Charge and more timely take-up rate information. We do not intend to make any further changes to the publication at this stage, but we will continue to monitor user interest regarding National Insurance credits and may consider this for future development of the publication.

15. Child and Working Tax Credits statistics

15.1 Feedback summary

We received 10 responses in total about our Child and Working Tax Credits statistics. Three responses were on the geographical data, 2 responses on the finalised awards and small area statistics, 2 responses on the provisional awards and 3 responses on the longer term strategy.

Overall, the responses agreed with the proposals. The responses welcomed the move to consider producing tables in a machine-readable format to improve user access to the aggregated data used in the statistics. Users also welcomed the commitment to provide information and a timeline in the medium term on the cessation of tax credit statistics as tax credit customers complete the move to Universal Credit. Users did not see the benefit in monthly headline provisional awards statistics but suggested other less frequent updates.

15.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We will consolidate the small area data statistics into the finalised awards release in 2023. Where possible, we will move tables into a machine-readable format for both provisional and finalised awards statistics, to make time series analysis easier for our breakdowns, ensuring no detail is lost. There was not a clear user need for more frequent monthly provisional statistics so we will not be taking this forward. We will explore the possibility of publishing information based on the tax credits data for August to provide interim figures between the current April and December releases instead. We will explore the feasibility of publishing further breakdowns at national levels for devolved administrations, as requested by colleagues at Scottish Government. For the longer-term strategy, we will explore and agree thresholds for stopping publication of certain breakdowns in our national statistics, when the suppression levels become too high to be helpful for users. Any planned reduction in content will be announced ahead of publication.

16. Inheritance Tax statistics

16.1 Feedback summary

We received 6 responses about our proposal to discontinue table 12.1 from our Inheritance Tax statistics. Five of those responses were favourable, while the sixth disagreed, as it was felt that the table provided useful information about the relative importance of Inheritance Tax receipts from death estates versus trust charges.

We received 5 responses about our proposal to include the average effective tax rates faced by taxpaying estates in an expanded table 12.3. All respondents agreed that this information would be useful to inform the public debate around Inheritance Tax.

We received 5 responses about our proposal to discontinue table 12.7 and responses were mixed. Those who disagreed with the table’s discontinuation argued that it provided useful information about the distribution and size of trusts paying ten-year anniversary charges.

We received 5 responses about our proposal to expand table 12.8. All respondents agreed with our proposal to include information about the exit charges paid by taxpaying trusts. Some respondents also noted how we should include information on entry charges paid by taxpaying trusts for completeness.

We received one response about a table that we had not sought views on – table 12.9. This individual asked whether this table could be re-added to the annual publication, and whether more granular information about the ages of the recipients of wealth transfers could be included.

We received 6 responses about our proposal to discontinue tables 12.10b and 12.11. Respondents were supportive, although one suggested whether these tables should be retained in the publication and tables 12.10a and 12.12 be discontinued instead.

We received 3 responses on our proposal to re-order the table numbers in the publication. Two were in favour, and one was against – the latter arguing that it would cause confusion and make it difficult to compare tables over time.

We received 2 responses on our proposal to re-name the publication and all respondents agreed.

16.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We will be discontinuing table 12.1 from our Inheritance Tax statistics publication from 2023 onwards.

We will include the average effective tax rates faced by taxpaying estates in an expanded table 12.3 from our 2023 publication onwards.

We will retain table 12.7 in our publication.

We will expand tables 12.7 and 12.8 to include the equivalent information for trusts paying both entry and exit charges. We agree that publishing information on all types of trust charges would provide a more complete picture and would be valuable to users, particularly since we will be discontinuing table 12.1. It is also possible to produce this information within current resource constraints.

We will not be bringing table 12.9 back into the annual publication. For information about the recipients of wealth transfers, we would refer users to the Wealth and Assets Survey, published by the Office for National Statistics.

We will discontinue tables 12.10b and 12.11 from our 2023 publication onwards.

We will re-order the tables from our 2023 publication onwards.

We will re-name the publication to ‘Inheritance Tax liabilities statistics’ from our 2023 publication onwards.

17. Statistics on non-domiciled taxpayers in the UK

17.1 Feedback summary

We received 5 responses on the shortening of the time series data for our statistics on non-domiciled taxpayers in the UK. Most respondents agreed with shortening the time series in the commentary but retaining the longer time series in the accompanying tables. Although some respondents were keen for figure 1 in the commentary to retain the longer time series as an overall summary.

We received a number of responses about not removing the split between Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax (CGT) and the consensus amongst respondents is that the split for regions such as London is useful.

We received a few responses on simplifying the commentary on the remittance basis charge where individuals were generally in agreement about this, with suggestions to improve the commentary and the measure of the deemed domiciles instead.

We received 2 responses about removing table 12, which were content as long as it is retained in the National Archives with clear working links.

17.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We are going to include links on GOV.UK to previous releases of the statistics in the National Archives. This will also enable direct links to historic releases containing table 12, which we will remove from future releases.

We will keep the longer time series in figure 1 but will shorten the time series in the other tables and charts to the last 8 years. We will combine tables 13 and 14 retaining the split by Income Tax and CGT by having a combined column for Income Tax and CGT and including a separate column titled “of which CGT” where this is not disclosive.

We will simplify the commentary around the remittance basis charge. We have noted comments on the improvement of the commentary on deemed domiciles, and specifically the improvement of the measure of the number of deemed domiciles. We will take these into consideration for future statistics releases.

18. Statistics on trusts

18.1 Feedback summary

We received a number of responses to our suggestion of shortening the time series for our Statistics on trusts. Some responses suggested keeping the full length of the current time series, and others requested that the time series is kept to at least 11 years given the 10-year Inheritance Tax charge on Trusts.

We received a number of responses on use of the Trust Registration Service data, including specific examples of data that individuals would like to see.

We received a number of responses on combining tables 2 and 4, and tables 5 and 7 with mixed reviews. Some agreed that they should be combined on the basis that all previous information is provided in the National Archives. Some respondents disagree that they should be combined given that it is difficult to envisage what the proposed revisions might look like.

18.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We are going to include links to previous releases of the statistics on GOV.UK.

We recognise that there is a demand from users for further statistics from the Trust Registration Service. We will take this into consideration for future statistics releases.

We will combine the number and income tables for each of discretionary (trusts taxed at the special trust rates) and interest in possession trusts.

We are going to ensure the time series will include at least 11 years of data and we are going to consider how we can best improve the coherence between the Trusts and Inheritance Tax statistics releases.

We are going to shorten the longer tables in the commentary so that it flows more smoothly but retain the length in the accompanying spreadsheet tables.

19. Charity Tax Relief statistics

19.1 Feedback summary

We received 2 responses that were in agreement with removing table 3 (Gift Aid donations amounts) for our Charity Tax Relief statistics. Responses about the removal of table 5 (Self Assessment individuals’ donations by tax year) were mixed. This table is a time series, and although previous years are available in the National Archives, the time series allows for easier comparison between years.

We received 2 responses disagreeing with the removal of medians from tables 5 to 7 (donations by Self Assessment taxpayers) due to the additional information they provide on the distribution of donation amounts.

We received 2 responses disagreeing with the removal of tables 6b (Self Assessment taxpayers’ donations by age) and 6f (by gender). Respondents were generally in favour of the removal of table 6a (by main income source) as the indicator for main income source is unhelpful.

There were no responses in support of the suggestions to add information about donors who ask HMRC to treat Gift Aid donations as if they were made in the previous tax year, and about adding in information about relief for corporate donations.

Respondents were in favour of renumbering the tables.

We also had a suggestion to include a table to provide information on Community Amateur Sports Clubs.

19.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We will discontinue publishing table 3 (Gift Aid donations amounts) from 2023 onwards.

We will continue to publish table 5 (Self Assessment individuals’ donations by tax year).

We will discontinue the means and medians in tables 5 to 7 (donations by Self Assessment taxpayers). Distribution on a population level can be seen in table 6c (Self Assessment taxpayer’s donations by donation amount).

We will discontinue publishing table 6a (Self Assessment taxpayers’ donations by main income source) but continue to publish tables 6b (by age) and 6f (by gender).

We will not include new information about relief for corporate donations, or information about donors who ask HMRC to treat Gift Aid donations as if they were made in the previous tax year.

We will re-number the tables to be sequential after these changes have been made.

We will investigate the practicality of including Community Amateur Sports Clubs in a separate table.