Welsh Rates of Income Tax annual report 2024

Question 1

Purpose

Accepted Answer

The Government of Wales Act 2006 enables the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) to set a Welsh basic, higher and additional rate of Income Tax to apply to the non-savings and non-dividend income of Welsh taxpayers. This power was first used in respect of the 2019 to 2020 tax year, and the rates continued to remain the same as the UK rates for the 2023 to 2024 tax year.

Welsh Rates of Income Tax (WRIT) works by reducing the UK income tax rates by 10p in £1. WRIT is charged on top of these reduced rates, and can be lower, higher or the same as the UK rates.

The Income Tax Personal Allowance remains reserved to the UK Parliament.

Welsh Rates of Income Tax in 2023 to 2024

Bands	Rates	Taxable income
Basic rate	20%	£12,571 - £50,270
Higher rate	40%	£50,271 - £125,140
Additional rate	45%	£125,141+

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) administers WRIT through existing Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) and Self Assessment processes, including through existing approaches to Income Tax compliance and communications. This ensures the correct amount of tax is collected, and in the vast majority of cases Welsh taxpayers will notice no difference in how HMRC interacts with them.

This report sets out information about HMRC’s administration of WRIT covering:

identification and assurance of Welsh taxpayers
compliance activity
the collection of and accounting for WRIT revenues
data for WRIT rate setting and forecasting
customer service and support
governance and oversight of WRIT
the costs of delivering WRIT and recharging of these costs to the Welsh Government

Question 2

1.  Identification and Assurance

Accepted Answer

Who is a Welsh taxpayer?

For most people, whether or not they are a Welsh taxpayer in a given tax year is straightforward. Individuals who live in Wales, and have their sole or main place of residence there, are Welsh taxpayers. Those whose sole or main place of residence is located elsewhere in the UK are not Welsh taxpayers.

If a person has more than one place of residence, their main place or places of residence determines where they pay Income Tax. If a person has 2 or more ‘main places of residence’ in different parts of the UK, they will be a Welsh taxpayer if their main place of residence was in Wales for more of the year than any other part of the UK.

Members of the Senedd who represent constituencies in Wales are also Welsh taxpayers, regardless of their residency. As they are not subject to the normal residency rules, we operate a separate process to ensure they have the correct residency status applied on our system.

Identification and assurance work

The National Audit Office’s (NAO) report on the Administration of WRIT highlights, in paragraph 12 of the Key Findings, that identifying Welsh taxpayers is the key challenge of HMRC’s administration of WRIT in 2022 to 2023. There is no definitive data set of Welsh residents against which to judge success, but we are confident in our identification of Welsh taxpayers as detailed below.

HMRC has built a new longitudinal dataset covering the incomes and location of UK taxpayers over a 12-year period. The Welsh population is not static and the dataset is used to look at trends on the number of individuals moving to/from Wales and rest of UK (England, Northern Ireland and Scotland). Figures from the dataset suggest that in 2021 to 2022, an estimated 70,000 taxpayers moved across the border. About 40,000 of these moved from the rest of UK to Wales and 30,000 in the other direction. The number of individuals moving will not be the same every year.

Identifying Welsh taxpayers is an on-going process, and we work closely with the Welsh Government to ensure this remains robust.

Third party data clash

HMRC engages an external supplier to carry out a third party data clash exercise. This compares or ‘clashes’ data held by HMRC with that from the third party to assess the accuracy of HMRC’s address data with respect to the identification of Welsh taxpayers. Under our current arrangements with the Welsh Government we conduct the data clash every 2 years.

There are 2 stages to the third party data clash:

The external supplier carries out the initial scan by comparing HMRC’s address data for individuals across the UK with data held by third parties, for example, the electoral roll and credit reference agencies.
Following the initial scan carried out by the external supplier, HMRC carries out an analysis of the results to assess the accuracy of HMRC’s identification of Welsh taxpayers. HMRC then compares records unmatched in the initial scan against the latest PAYE and Self Assessment records.

The third party data clash scan was last conducted in 2023. Following the analysis of the results we estimate that the correct Welsh taxpayer status was applied in 98 to 99% of cases. The remaining 1 to 2% were not necessarily wrong, but they were uncorroborated.

Many of the uncorroborated cases were likely to be in respect of individuals without a source of PAYE income, which is why these were not identified in HMRC’s data. These individuals would therefore be outside the scope of the Welsh Rates of Income Tax.

These results are consistent with analysis of previous data clash exercises, and suggest that the accuracy of HMRC’s address data remains high. We will continue to assess this, and a data clash will take place in the 2025 to 2026 tax year.

Data updates

Postcodes and the properties within them, occasionally change to reflect new build properties and subdivision of existing properties. HMRC receives quarterly postcode updates from the Office of National Statistics and updates its processes for flagging Welsh residency to ensure ongoing accuracy of HMRC’s record of postcodes and their residency statuses.

Postcode scans

HMRC conducts scans to identify any data quality issues and make corrections. There will always be the need to assure the quality of the data we receive, and this is not an issue specific to WRIT. Our address data comes from a variety of sources, including individuals, employers and other government departments. There are no issues with the vast majority of the address data recorded on our systems, however a small minority requires correcting.

HMRC relies on data from external sources to complete our records. We have a program of work in place to ensure that any data issues for Welsh taxpayer records are identified and corrected, preventing any loss of revenue to the Welsh Government.

The scan to assure the quality of our address data operates in 2 parts:

identification of taxpayer records with a Welsh postcode prefix but where the postcode is not recorded on HMRC’s list of live and deleted Welsh postcodes
identification of taxpayer records with a blank postcode but which has a key word in the body of the address that indicates it is a Welsh postcode, for example, Cardiff

Results of the scan in 2023 to 2024

Type of error	Employment and pension	Change from 2022 to 2023
Invalid postcode	411	+16.7%
Blank postcode	396	-5.2%

Although there has been a small increase in the number of invalid postcodes, this remains a very small percentage of Welsh postcodes. This is in comparison to the number of Welsh taxpayers which totalled to 1,492,500 in the 2022 to 2023 tax year, all of whom will have a postcode. HMRC monitors trends in this data and keeps its approach to data assurance under review.

HMRC corrected all address records with invalid and blank postcodes where an individual had an employment or pension income. This ensures that the Welsh Government does not lose any tax as a result of data quality issues.

Communications

Communication is crucial to our efforts to accurately identify Welsh taxpayers. HMRC has continued to use the extensive existing communication channels to reinforce key messages on WRIT to employers and individuals. Communications to individuals have been through channels including online social media, the Personal Tax Account, and the Annual Tax Summaries. These communications have focused on the need for customers to update their address details with HMRC when they move.

HMRC’s communications with employers have been through channels including the Employer Bulletin, Agent Update, Customer Compliance Managers’ engagement with large businesses and public bodies, forums for employers, payroll managers and agents, GOV.UK, and online social media. These communications have focused on reminding employers of the importance of them correctly applying the ‘C’ codes issued to them by HMRC.

Employers’ application of Welsh tax codes

When HMRC identifies an individual in PAYE as a Welsh taxpayer, a tax code is issued to their employer for them to operate. All tax codes for Welsh taxpayers have a ‘C’ prefix. The vast majority of employers operate the codes issued to them, however a small minority make errors and operate codes without the ‘C’ prefix.

Individuals affected by these errors are still identified as Welsh taxpayers by HMRC, and the correct amount of tax is paid to the Welsh Government. There is therefore no loss of revenue to the Welsh Government, as we use our identification to calculate the WRIT outturn. As Welsh and rest of UK rates currently are the same, no one pays the wrong amount of tax as a result of this error. This would change if the rates were to diverge, although end of year reconciliation would ensure that any over- or under-payments were corrected. If rates were to differ, it would be important that codes are correctly applied in year to minimise the under- or overpayments that taxpayers would face at that end of year reconciliation.

HMRC supports employers to correctly apply the Welsh codes issued to them. We carry out regular scans to monitor the proportion of employments that are missing the ‘C’ prefix.

Employments missing the ‘C’ prefix

Month	% of employments missing the ‘C’ prefix in 2023-24	% of employments missing the ‘C’ prefix in 2022-23	% of employments missing the ‘C’ prefix in 2021-22	% of employments missing the ‘C’ prefix in 2020-21
April	2.27%	2.27%	2.59%	2.47%
July	2.61%	2.56%	2.02%	Not applicable
October	2.49%	2.44%	2.11%	2.79%
January	2.48%	2.36%	2.32%	2.77%

The issue of employers not applying the codes issued to them by HMRC is much broader than WRIT, and may reflect wider challenges employers are facing in operating PAYE. In many cases, an employer failing to apply ‘C’ codes arises from a software error or missing update.

Our approach to tackling missing ‘C’ prefixes therefore focuses on reminding, educating, and supporting employers to correctly apply the codes issued to them. Where this is not happening, we reissue codes to employers to notify them of the error and, where possible in cases where employers are continually getting this wrong, we contact the employer to understand why and help them to get it right.

This approach has successfully reduced the error rate for employments missing the ‘C’ prefix from around 10% in 2019 to 2020 to around 2% in 2023 to 2024. We will continue to work with the Welsh Government and employers to maintain the error rate at a low level.

Question 3

2.  Compliance

Accepted Answer

Compliance checks into tax affairs of Welsh taxpayers

HMRC applies risk-based compliance activity to the collection of WRIT in the same way as is applied to the collection of Income Tax from taxpayers in the rest of the UK. The Welsh Government is not recharged for this activity.

HMRC looks at compliance risks over multiple years in order to take the most appropriate compliance action.

WRIT remains aligned with England and Northern Ireland so there is currently no differential that might drive a risk of behavioural change in Welsh taxpayers.

Address assurance

For all individuals, whether in Self Assessment or PAYE, HMRC monitors cross-border migration trends through comparison of the customer base, analysis of tax returns and changes to tax accounts to identify possible evidence of customer behavioural response.

HMRC also validates the accuracy of reported moves and the completeness of its address data. HMRC will continue communications activity to customers, reinforcing the need to update address details with HMRC when they move.

Building insight

There is no differential between WRIT and UK rates, so HMRC does not expect to see behaviour change related to WRIT. HMRC continues to undertake compliance activity into Welsh taxpayers for areas other than WRIT, and if that work shows any trends behaviour that could also be relevant to WRIT compliance that will be considered in future periods.

Wealthy individuals

HMRC continues to use its existing Customer Compliance Manager model and other interactions with wealthy customers to raise awareness, educate customers about their WRIT obligations and assess compliance risk related to misrepresentation of Welsh taxpayer status or understatement of income liable to WRIT.

Timing

In addition to the Real Time Information Reviews carried out in-year, the end of year PAYE reconciliation programme checks the tax deducted against the tax due for all customers. Any underpayments are collected from the customer, usually through an adjustment to the subsequent year’s PAYE code, and any overpayments are refunded.

Self-employed customers are on an annual return cycle and Self Assessment returns for 2022 to 2023 tax year were not required to be submitted until January 2024. Compliance checks on 2022 to 2023 returns would therefore generally commence in 2024, although enquiries may be opened earlier for returns submitted before the deadline.

The majority of enquiries into 2022 to 2023 returns do not, however, begin immediately after the submission of returns as assessments of risk must take place first.

Question 4

3.  WRIT revenues, rate setting and forecasting

Accepted Answer

Since the introduction of WRIT on 6 April 2019, HMRC continues to administer and collect Income Tax from Welsh taxpayers as part of the UK tax system. It pays WRIT revenues into the UK Consolidated Fund in the same way as it does for all other tax receipts. These revenues are subsequently transferred to the Welsh Government and the Welsh Government’s resource block grant will be reduced accordingly, reflecting its revenue-raising powers.

In July 2024 HMRC released a statistical publication, WRIT Outturn Statistics 2022 to 2023, which included the information shown in the HMRC accounts and further breakdowns of WRIT and equivalent information for taxpayers in the rest of the UK. The outturn is calculated following the submission deadline for Self Assessment returns, meaning there is a delay between the end of the tax year and the publication of the outturn for that year. The 2023 to 2024 outturn will not be published until 2025.

WRIT outturn 2022 to 2023

For 2022 to 2023, the total amount of Income Tax revenue from Welsh taxpayers was £6.053 billion, including WRIT revenue of £2.618 billion attributable to the Welsh Government budget. The first table below shows the total revenue from Income Tax on Non-Saving/Non-Dividend (NSND) income for Welsh taxpayers and for rest of UK (rUK, representing English and Northern Irish) taxpayers in 2022 to 2023. The second table below shows the WRIT revenue attributable to the Welsh Government budget from Income Tax on NSND income for Welsh taxpayers and comparable rest of UK taxpayers in 2022 to 2023 (for example 10p at the basic rate, 10p at the higher rate, and 10p at the additional rate). The tables also show the components of the figures.

2022 to 2023 Total Income Tax Revenue from NSND Income of Welsh and non-Welsh Taxpayers

	Welsh NSND (£bn)	rUK NSND (£bn)	Welsh share of total UK NSND
Self Assessment established liability	2.169	119.871	1.7%
PAYE established liability	3.930	84.820	4.0%
Estimated further liability: late tax returns and compliance yield	0.149	6.607	2.1%
Less: adjustment for uncollectable amounts	(0.038)	(1.313)	2.7%
Relief at Source	(0.094)	(2.282)	3.6%
Gift Aid	(0.062)	(1.370)	4.0%
Final revenue for tax year 2022 to 2023	6.053	206.333	2.7%

2022 to 2023 WRIT and comparable rUK NSND Income Tax

	Welsh NSND (£bn)	rUK NSND (£bn)
Self Assessment established liability	0.792	36.408
PAYE established liability and PAYE Settlement Agreements	1.863	38.923
Estimated further liability	0.058	2.146
Less: adjustment for uncollectable amounts	(0.017)	(0.566)
Relief at Source	(0.047)	(1.141)
Gift Aid	(0.031)	(0.685)
Final Revenue for the tax year 2022 to 2023	2.618	75.085

Revision in relation to duplicate Self Assessment records

While producing the 2022 to 2023 outturn statistics, HMRC discovered a number of individuals that were recorded in both the Self Assessment (CESA) and PAYE (NPS) data extracts used in the production of these statistics. This occurred when individuals filed unsolicited Self Assessment returns (these individuals were not issued a notice to file a return).

On investigation, HMRC found that this issue occurred in all tax years covered in these statistics. From the 2019 to 2020 tax year through to the 2021 to 2022 tax year, there was on average 7,300 Welsh taxpayers affected, with an average of £40 million of excess Income Tax associated with these taxpayers. This issue did not result in any taxpayers paying the wrong amount of Income Tax and only impacted on the calculation for the statistics.

To resolve this issue, HMRC have removed these cases from the PAYE data extracts that are processed as part of the PAYE Established component described above. We have chosen to take this route as Self Assessment Returns are generally a more accurate representation of the tax liabilities due by a taxpayer – this is because Self Assessment Returns include information on income earned from sources other than employments.

Data for WRIT rate setting and forecasting

HMRC has worked closely with the Welsh Government to develop an agreed work plan. This details the analysis and data that HMRC will provide to the Welsh Government to support them in their analytical work. Officials meet regularly to ensure new priorities are discussed and factored in against existing commitments. As part of this, both parties have agreed what new information would be useful to help provide more understanding of the WRIT outturn.

HMRC provides the Welsh Government with relevant data for WRIT. At a UK level, these tasks are fulfilled using the Survey of Personal Incomes (SPI).

The SPI is compiled to provide a quantified evidence base from which to cost proposed changes to tax rates, personal allowances and other tax reliefs for Treasury Ministers. It is used to inform policy decisions within HMRC and HM Treasury, as well as for tax modelling and forecasting purposes.

The SPI is based on information held by HMRC on individuals who could be liable to UK tax. It is carried out annually by HMRC and covers income assessable to tax for each tax year. Not all of the individuals are taxpayers because the operation of personal reliefs and allowances may remove them from liability. Where income exceeds the threshold for operation of PAYE, the survey provides the most comprehensive and accurate official source of data on personal incomes.

HMRC provides the Welsh Government with an updated copy of the SPI data set annually. This copy was identical to that used, for similar purposes, at a UK level, with the exception of some minor aggregation of taxpayer data at the highest income levels to avoid potential breaches of taxpayer confidentiality. HMRC continues to work with the Welsh Government and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to ensure the information provided meets their requirements and supports forecasting and rate setting for Wales.

From 2019 to 2020, with the introduction of WRIT, there has been a reduction in the Welsh Government’s resource block grant. This is equivalent to 10 percentage points from each tax rate of non-savings non-dividend Income Tax generated from Welsh taxpayers, uplifted using the mechanism set out in the fiscal framework agreed between the UK and Welsh Government in December 2016.

Each year, both the tax receipts generated and the block grant deduction will initially be based on a forecast and then reconciled to actual receipts collected which will become known around 15 months after the end of the financial year in question.

HMRC must provide the Welsh Government with sufficient data to discharge its duties in respect of cash management linked to any change between forecast and collected amounts of WRIT. To fulfil this requirement HMRC have agreed with the Welsh Government to provide WRIT figures from the Real Time Information (RTI) data received from employers. This is the best indication of trends in Income Tax liabilities available in real time but is not a complete picture of Income Tax liabilities because it excludes tax paid through Self Assessment (and some adjustments made to PAYE liabilities) after the end of the tax year.

HMRC works closely with the Welsh Government to ensure we provide them with the required analysis. HMRC delivered a variety of analytical outputs on WRIT for the Welsh Government in 2023 to 2024, including:

publishing WRIT and rUK outturn for 2022 to 2023
producing forecasts of WRIT and rUK Income Tax for the OBR at Autumn 2023 and Spring 2024
evaluating Spring 2021 forecast for 2021 to 2022 WRIT for the OBR, feeding into the March 2024 Devolved Tax and Spending Forecasts and December 2023 and February 2024 Welsh Taxes Outlook
producing the Provisional Estimate for 2022 to 2023 WRIT for [HMRC’s annual report and accounts 2022 to 2023[(https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-annual-report-and-accounts-2022-to-2023)
sharing Income Distribution Analysis for the 2022 to 2023 WRIT outturn
delivering monthly Real Time Information data on PAYE taxpayers
updating the Welsh Government’s WRIT ‘ready reckoner’ with the latest outturn data and OBR macroeconomic forecasts
analysis of Sole Traders and Partnerships in Wales and rUK for 2021 to 2022
sharing the Public Use Tape (PUT) version of the 2020 to 2021 Survey of Personal Incomes

Question 5

4.  Customer service and support

Accepted Answer

HMRC administers WRIT as part of the UK Income Tax system. In the vast majority of circumstances Welsh taxpayers will therefore notice no difference in the way HMRC interacts with them. This approach also ensures that the correct amount of tax is collected.

WRIT is collected through existing PAYE and Self Assessment processes, which have been adapted to reflect WRIT rates. Welsh taxpayers can use HMRC’s usual guidance and customer contact channels for advice and information.

In the majority of areas customer service provided to Welsh taxpayers will therefore be included and reported within HMRC’s UK-wide customer service reporting.

The customer service and support for Welsh taxpayers, agents and employers that HMRC has incorporated into its existing processes includes the following:

providing all Welsh taxpayers and their employers with Welsh tax codes prior to the start of the tax year
annual tax summaries issued to all Welsh taxpayers
updating online calculators prior to the start of the tax year with the WRIT rates set by the Senedd to ensure they remain accurate for Welsh taxpayers
guidance for payroll software providers on how to correctly incorporate Welsh rates into their PAYE products for employers
guidance on how Welsh taxpayer status is decided and what to do if customers feel HMRC has wrongly identified their status
encouraging customers to update their personal details, focusing on the use of Personal Tax Account
issuing paper tax tables to digitally exempt employers prior to the start of the tax year reflecting Welsh rates

Some aspects of customer service are specific to WRIT, for example guidance on Welsh taxpayer status and ability to discuss with HMRC disagreements over the Welsh residency status given.

It is important that HMRC can demonstrate that its customer service in these areas matches what it provides across the UK as a whole. The Service Level Agreement (SLA) between HMRC and the Welsh Government therefore commits HMRC to collect and report on key, WRIT specific, customer contact metrics. The key metrics for 2023 to 2024 are outlined in the Annex to this report, the Annual Business Intelligence Report.

Welsh language service

HMRC has a well-established Welsh language service that is more than 30 years old and delivered under the 1993 Welsh Language Act. Approximately 40 full-time staff are employed for Welsh language work.

HMRC delivers the majority of its Welsh language services using 2 dedicated teams of Welsh speakers based in Porthmadog and Cardiff. They provide customer service support and translation services, as well as helping other areas of HMRC with Welsh language issues. There is also a designated Welsh speaking senior manager for Welsh language who is based in Cardiff and is the first point of contact for all things Welsh language in HMRC.

Welsh language customer support for WRIT is supported by both teams in various ways. HMRC also offers a Welsh language customer service option from the main Income Tax helpline. HMRC receives around 20,000 calls from Welsh language customers each year across all our customer services.

Question 6

5.  Governance and oversight

Accepted Answer

Governance arrangements

The governance arrangements in place for HMRC’s administration of WRIT ensure that we are fulfilling our obligations and meeting the needs of the Welsh Government. HMRC’s administration of WRIT is governed jointly by HMRC and the Welsh Government, and we work closely with them to ensure that there is sufficient oversight of our administration of WRIT.

Service Level Agreement

Our SLA with the Welsh Government sets out HMRC’s obligations for administering WRIT, and the performance measures for monitoring this. It ensures a consistent quality of service to Welsh taxpayers and allows HMRC and the Welsh Government to meet their respective responsibilities.

The SLA is reviewed annually by HMRC and the Welsh Government. For the 2023 to 2024 tax year a key requirement was included for HMRC to provide the Welsh Government with a full assessment of the delivery requirements, timescales, and costs of proposed WRIT policy changes, in line with a new Confidentiality Agreement available at Annex C of the SLA.

The signatories to the SLA in HMRC and the Welsh Government meet twice a year to review HMRC’s progress in administering WRIT.

WRIT Board

The WRIT Board meets quarterly to review HMRC’s administration of WRIT. It is comprised of representatives from both HMRC and the Welsh Government, drawing its membership from areas across HMRC which have a key role to play in our administration of WRIT. Chairing responsibilities are shared between HMRC and the Welsh Government.

In 2023 to 2024, the WRIT Board discussed a range of matters related to HMRC’s administration of WRIT. This included approving the methodology for calculating the 2022 to 2023 Welsh outturn, approving the costs to be recharged to the Welsh Government, agreeing the proposed changes to the SLA, and reviewing the Compliance Plan for 2023 to 2024.

During the 2023 to 2024 tax year WRIT Board hybrid meetings did alternate between London and Cardiff.

Devolved Analytical Working Group

The Devolved Analytical Working Group is comprised of representatives from HMRC, the Welsh Government, the Scottish Government, and the OBR, and the Scottish Fiscal Commission.

The working group meets regularly, and discusses, among other things, the methodology HMRC uses to calculate the WRIT outturn, and other analytical work carried out by HMRC for the Welsh and Scottish Governments.

Financial arrangements

Under the Fiscal Framework Agreement between the UK and Welsh Government, the Welsh Government reimburses HMRC for net additional costs wholly and necessarily incurred as a result of the implementation and administration of WRIT.

HMRC has a robust process in place to ensure that we accurately identify the costs of administering WRIT. We ensure we provide the Welsh Government with sufficient evidence to allow the Welsh Government to assure itself of the accuracy of the costs to be recharged.

As part of this process, we have a Rechargeable Costs Framework to set out our approach to and obligations for recharging costs to the Welsh Government. This is annexed to the SLA and is reviewed annually.

We provide the Welsh Government with a report each month to ensure they have a timely view of the costs to be recharged, which happens on a quarterly basis. An invoice is only raised once the WRIT Board is satisfied that the costs are accurate.

In 2023 to 2024, the costs recharged to the Welsh Government by HMRC for the administration of WRIT were:

Costs HMRC recharged to the Welsh Government for WRIT administration in 2023 to 2024

	Quarter 1 (£m)	Quarter 2 (£m)	Quarter 3 (£m)	Quarter 4 (£m)	Full year (£m)
Implementation and operating costs	0.08	0.12	0.10	0.13	0.43

HMRC recharges both the costs of implementing and the costs of operating WRIT. Implementation costs were the initial costs of setting up HMRC’s administration of WRIT, whilst operating costs are the day-to-day costs of this administration.

The charts below show the historic costs of implementing and operating WRIT that have been recharged to the Welsh Government, and how implementation costs have, over time, reduced. If the Welsh Government were to make further changes to WRIT, there would likely be further implementation costs.

Costs of implementing and operating WRIT recharged to the Welsh Government in previous years

	2023-24 (£m)	2022-23 (£m)	2021-22 (£m)	2020-21 (£m)	2019-20 (£m)	2018-19 (£m)	2017-18 (£m)
Implementation costs	Not applicable	Not applicable	Not applicable	0.19	1.77	5.44	0.29
Operating costs	0.43	0.42	0.44	0.53	0.23	Not applicable	Not applicable
Total cost of WRIT invoiced in financial year	0.43	0.42	0.44	0.72	1.60	5.80	0.34

Note: For ‘total cost of WRIT invoiced in final year’, figures shown may not be an exact sum of implementation and operating costs due to invoicing schedules.

External scrutiny

In addition to the internal governance structure agreed by HMRC and the Welsh Government, HMRC’s administration of WRIT is also overseen by several external bodies.

The National Audit Office

The NAO audits HMRC’s administration of WRIT annually. In January 2024, the NAO published its report into HMRC’s performance in 2022 to 2023. Paragraph 11 of the Key Findings reported that ‘HMRC has adequate rules and procedures in place to ensure the proper assessment and collection of WRIT and it is complying with those rules.’

The NAO did not make any recommendations for improvement, and their positive assessment of HMRC’s administration of WRIT provides us with assurance that we are fulfilling our obligations and maintaining a high level of service to both the Welsh Government and Welsh taxpayers.

The NAO’s report into HMRC’s administration of WRIT in 2023 to 2024 is expected to be published in January 2025.

The Senedd

HMRC administers WRIT on behalf of the Welsh Government, and as such is also accountable to the Senedd for our performance in doing so. As part of the implementation of WRIT, HMRC appointed an Additional Accounting Officer, who is available to give evidence to committees of the Senedd. The current Additional Accounting Officer is Jonathan Athow, Director General for Customer Strategy and Tax Design.

Question 7

Annex: Annual Business Intelligence Report 2023 to 2024

Accepted Answer

Customer contact – telephone

HMRC has a WRIT telephone route within the HMRC Personal Tax helpline. This gives customers generic pre-recorded WRIT messages prior to speaking to an HMRC Customer Advisor. These figures do not represent all calls by Welsh taxpayers to HMRC.

Phone calls received and answered

Total	2023 to 2024	2022 to 2023	2021 to 2022	2020 to 2021
Calls received	35	87	92	120
Calls answered	23	63	70	83

Web pages monitored

HMRC has a number of WRIT-related webpages on GOV.UK and hits to these pages are monitored:

Web hits

Web page on GOV.UK	Web hits in 2023 to 2024	Web hits in 2022 to 2023	Web hits in 2021 to 2022	Web hits in 2020 to 2021
Income Tax in Wales	38,953	44,444	39,827	43,337
Internal manual: Welsh taxpayer guidance	75	186	178	283
Tell HMRC about a change to your personal details	1,072,096	1,307,931	1,332,067	1,530,708

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