§ Mr. Heddleasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will publish a table showing for each year since 1960 (a) the total number of people employed in the Inland Revenue including temporary staff, (b) the total number of people paying direct taxes and (c) the number of Revenue employees per £1 million of income tax collected.
§ Mr. RidleyThe total number of people paying direct taxes is not available, but it is unlikely to be significantly greater than the number paying income tax. Column(b) of the following table shows the number paying income tax.
(a) (b) (c) Year Average number of Inland Revenue staff including temporary and casual staff. Number of people paying income tax (millions)* Number of Inland Revenue employees per £1 million of income tax collected.† 1960–61 56,856 * 23 1961–62 58,523 * 22 1962–53 58,465 23.2 21 1963–64 59,455 20.5 22 1964–65 57,230 21.1 19 1965–66 58,449 22.0 16 1966–67 61,122 22.8 19 1967–68 64,371 23.3 17 1968–69 65,269 24.2 15 1969–70 67,471 23.8 14 1970–71 70,222 23.1 12 1971–72 73,542 23.4 11 1972–73 76,106 21.7 12 1973–74 75,010 23.2 11 1974–75 77,358 24.4 8 1975–76 81,185 25.4 5 1976–77 83,287 26.0 5 1977–78 85,568 25.1 5 1978–79 85,603 26.2 5 1979–80 81,643 26.1 4 1980–81 76,876 25.2 3 1981–82 74,294 ‡25.1 3 1982–83 ‡73,800 ‡24.9 2 * A married couple both paying tax are counted as two people. Figures on this basis are not available for 1960–61 and 1961–62. † The number of Inland Revenue employees includes those employed on work other than income tax. ‡Provisional.