§ Sir John Rodgersasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what are the reasons for the delay in payment of tax rebates for mortgages.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 12th December 552W 1977; Vol. 941, c. 77], gave the following information:
Some 2½ million taxpayers with building society mortgages will not have received a tax repayment when their PAYE codes were increased to take account of the latest increases in personal allowances. This was because their codes were reduced last September on a non-cumulative basis to take account of reductions in the rate of interest paid to building societies. Most of these taxpayers will be entitled to a repayment—i.e., the reduction in tax from the personal allowances increases will be more than the amount of tax underpaid from the reductions in mortgage interest—and tax offices will examine this when doing the review of codes for 1978–79. As soon as a tax office finds that a repayment is due the taxpayer will be put back on the normal basis for PAYE so the employer can make it. The review should be completed by about February, but most of the taxpayers entitled to a repayment should have got it before then.