§ Mr. John Pattenasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many firms in the last financial year were liable for (a) corporation tax and (b) advance corporation tax, respectively; and, of these, how many did not pay each tax.
§ Mr. Peter Rees[pursuant to his reply, 7 August 1980]: (a) Approximately 650,000 entities are liable to corporation tax on income exceeding reliefs and on chargeable gains. This figure includes over 400,000 trading companies and many non-trading associations. Approximately half of the trading companies do not pay corporation tax.
(b) All companies making distributions are liable to advance corporation tax. In practice, approximately 25,000 companies pay ACT, many of them being parent or holding companies making distributions of profits on behalf of groups of companies.