Consultation outcome

Responses to publication-specific feedback

Updated 27 May 2021

1. Capital taxes statistics

1.1 Feedback summary

We received 2 responses giving qualified support for discontinuing the personal wealth statistics publication and one against. If the publication is discontinued, users asked that we: support the Office for National Statistics to improve coverage of high wealth individuals in its Wealth and Assets Survey; and maintain or expand coverage of wealth in our Inheritance Tax statistics publication.

1.2 HMRC’s consultation response

The personal wealth statistics publication will be discontinued. However, HMRC recognises the value users place in our Inheritance Tax statistics publication. Therefore there will be no changes to our Inheritance Tax statistics publication in 2021 and we will engage further with users to bring forward new proposals, if needed, for this publication at a later date. We will work with the Office for National Statistics to develop the Wealth and Assets Survey.

2. Income Tax statistics

2.1 Feedback summary

Three users supported our proposal to discontinue the annual Income Tax receipts publication. Another user agreed it is of limited value but requested we provide further breakdowns of tax receipts above those currently available in HMRC’s separate tax receipts publication, and a new breakdown of National Insurance Contributions (NIC) by class of NIC.

We received 5 responses opposing discontinuation of the tax structure and parameter statistics publication, and one in favour. Most users said this is a valuable historic record of Income Tax and National Insurance rates and allowances that is not available elsewhere.

Two users provided feedback on their use of sub-regional analyses of personal incomes statistics (tables 3.12 to 3.15) and one user expressed interest in the separate commentary document that has previously accompanied these tables.

We received 3 responses opposing removing projections from the Income Tax liabilities statistics publication, and one in favour. Most feedback says that restricting the publication to outturn data only will significantly reduce its value, with the loss of up-to-date breakdowns of taxpayer numbers and incomes that are frequently used. Some users also highlighted a need to publish similar statistics on National Insurance liabilities.

2.2 HMRC’s consultation response

The annual Income Tax receipts publication will be discontinued. We will engage with users at a later date to establish needs for further breakdowns of Income Tax and NIC receipts.

The tax structure and parameter statistics publication was released in April 2021. We now plan to continue to update and make this information available in future as users highlighted the value of the historic information it contains. It will, however, no longer be a separate publication and will be included in the Income Tax liabilities statistics publication.

In the light of consultation feedback received, the sub-regional personal incomes tables were published as usual in April 2021 without any loss of detail, and the separate commentary document was discontinued.

We now plan to continue to include projections up to and including the current tax year in future publications of Income Tax liabilities statistics as currently.

HMRC recognises the absence of comparable statistics for National Insurance liabilities and has been exploring use of Real Time Information (RTI) data for this purpose. We will engage with users to explore their needs.

3. Child and Working Tax Credits statistics

3.1 Feedback summary

Some users could see the merit in stopping the Child and Working Tax Credits statistics: small area data publication, but other users stated that the lower level geographical breakdowns are essential to them. This is especially true of the responses from users from UK devolved administrations and associated organisations.

Two users stated that they make use of statistics on underpayments and overpayments to tax credit recipients found in the main tables in the Child and Working Tax Credits statistics: supplement on payments publication.

There was a mainly positive response to the proposal to merge the 2 Child and Working Tax Credit award statistics publications (provisional awards and final awards) to create one publication.

Two users felt that continuing with 2 annual releases of the provisional tax credit statistics was useful to reflect trends and especially important to highlight the impact of the pandemic over the past year whilst others could see the merit in reducing to one publication.

Users also agreed there was merit in reducing the publication of the Child and Working Tax Credits error and fraud statistics to a single annual publication.

3.2 HMRC’s consultation response

HMRC is developing a proposal with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on a strategy for future provision of statistics on Child and Working Tax Credits, as part of tax credits/Universal Credit statistics strategy work. Statistics users will be given an opportunity to comment on detailed plans later this year.

HMRC will reach out to individual users of the Child and Working Tax Credits statistics: small area data publication to understand how to meet their needs. Taking into account those discussions, we will consider reducing coverage within the publication this year and producing a data file to meet those users’ needs instead.

We will reduce the coverage of the Child and Working Tax Credits statistics: supplement on payments publication this year by stopping the geographical supplementary tables. We will continue to publish the main tables.

We will jointly publish the 2 statistics publications on Child and Working Tax Credits awards statistics (provisional awards and final awards) from 2022 onwards. We will liaise with the statistics users who found the earlier release useful to see if an alternative, shorter product could meet their needs.

We will continue to publish Child and Working Tax Credits error and fraud statistics annually each summer. The publication will continue to include provisional data but will also incorporate finalised statistics updated from the previous year’s publication. This will replace the release of finalised statistics through a separate publication.

4. VAT statistics

4.1 Feedback summary

We received one response, which was in favour of dropping the quarterly VAT statistics publication.

4.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We will cease publication of the quarterly VAT statistics publication. The final release will be in July 2021.

5. Pensions statistics

5.1 Feedback summary

We received three responses supporting consolidation of our pensions publications (flexible payments from pensions and the annual pension contributions by contribution type and personal and stakeholder pension statistics) into a single annual release. Two users said that they preferred more frequent access to information on flexible payments from pensions for the purpose of monitoring tax receipts and the economy. One user opposed discontinuation of the Qualifying Registered Overseas Pension Schemes (QROPS) statistics, stating that information on the annual number and corresponding value of transfers would be harder to access within HMRC’s Pension Schemes Services newsletters.

5.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We will consolidate our pensions publications (flexible payments from pensions and the annual pension contributions by contribution type and personal and stakeholder pension statistics) into a single annual release later in 2021, which will include quarterly data on flexible payments from pensions. Our consultation signals limited interest in our separate Qualifying Registered Overseas Pension Schemes (QROPS) statistics publication which will be discontinued.

6. Savings products statistics

6.1 Feedback summary

We received 2 responses supporting our plans to introduce a new annual savings products statistics publication, combining the content of our Individual Savings Account (ISA) statistics, and Help to Save statistics. One user encouraged HMRC to publish statistics on other tax-exempt savings products.

6.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We will move to a single publication for savings statistics in May 2021. This will provide a suitable vehicle for analysis of other savings products. HMRC has been exploring these possibilities and will make extensions to coverage where possible in future releases.

7. Environmental statistics

7.1 Feedback summary

We received 5 responses, 4 were in favour of creating a combined environmental publication from the Aggregates Levy, Landfill Tax and Climate Change Levy and Carbon Price Floor statistics publications and one was against.

7.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We will combine the environmental statistics publications (Aggregates Levy, Landfill Tax and Climate Change Levy and Carbon Price Floor statistics) into one combined publication from June 2021 onwards.

8. Air Passenger Duty statistics

8.1 Feedback summary

We received 2 responses, one in favour of reducing the frequency of publication of Air Passenger Duty statistics and one user keen to increase the frequency of Air Passenger Duty statistics.

8.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We will reduce the frequency of publication of Air Passenger Duty statistics to annual. We will continue to publish biannual publications in 2021 and move to an annual publication in 2022. HMRC will continue to publish monthly Air Passenger Duty statistics in its HMRC tax receipts,) publication.

9. Hydrocarbon oils statistics

9.1 Feedback summary

We received 2 responses, one in favour of reducing the frequency of publication of hydrocarbon oils statistics and one raising concerns about the impact of having only a biannual publication.

9.2 HMRC’s consultation response

There will no changes to the frequency of our hydrocarbon oils statistics publication. This will remain as a quarterly publication, but we will be reviewing the scheduling.  

10. Benefits in Kind (company cars) statistics

10.1 Feedback summary

Four users said that they opposed the restricted focus of our Benefits in Kind statistics publication to company car and fuel benefits in September 2020, implemented due to the reduced availability of underlying data for other benefits through payrolling. These users prefer fuller analysis based on comprehensive reporting by employers, other data collection, or data sources still available to HMRC. Among these users, there was interest in measures of the value of a wider range of benefits, analysis of who receives them (especially their income level), and revenue lost through tax reliefs on the benefits.

10.2 HMRC’s consultation response

We welcome feedback on our latest publication of Benefits in Kind statistics and aim to provide some breakdowns of the car benefit statistics. Employers no longer need to provide data on payrolled benefits in kind so that reduces the statistics that can be produced for other benefit types. However, we aim to include information on other Benefits in Kind at aggregate level for the 2022 publication. HMRC published research in 2019 on employees receiving non-taxable Benefits in Kind.

11. Charity Tax Relief statistics

11.1 Feedback summary

Two users supported our proposal to reduce the number of years in our time series published in our Charity Tax Relief statistics, which would allow us to stop reporting on reliefs which are no longer available and simplify our published tables.

11.2 HMRC’s consultation response

The proposed changes will be made in the next publication of Charity Tax Relief statistics. Older editions will be available online so users will still be able to access information about historic reliefs.

12. Petroleum Revenue Tax statistics

12.1 Feedback summary

No concerns were raised by users of the detailed Petroleum Revenue Tax statistics to proposals to drop the detailed tables from the Government revenues from UK oil and gas production statistics publication.

12.2 HMRC’s consultation response

The detailed Petroleum Revenue Tax statistics will be dropped from the Government revenues from UK oil and gas production statistics publication from 2021 onwards.