Tax Collection Staff

HC Deb 06 March 1995 vol 256 cc69-70W

Mr. Matthew Taylor

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many collection staff were working for the Inland Revenue; and how many were working in the areas of(a) capital gains tax; (b) schedule D tax, (c)

Year	Total	Capital gains tax	Schedule D tax	Corporation tax	PAYE
1978–79	11,041	135	5,873	560	4,473
1979–80	10,648	148	5,701	584	4,215
1980–81	10,222	143	5,529	597	3,953
1981–82	10,124	126	5,747	409	3,842
1982–83	10,221	116	5,673	390	4,042
1983–84	10,171	113	5,570	394	4,094
1984–85	9,339	92	4,674	557	4,016
1985–86	8,443	92	4,596	559	3,196
1986–87	7,989	85	4,472	530	2,902
1987–88	7,795	105	4,250	538	2,902
1988–89	7,866	121	4,243	571	2,931
1989–90	7,879	92	4,243	570	2,974
1990–91	7,846	79	4,410	549	2,808
1991–92	8,187	70	4,376	532	3,209
1992–93	8,410	69	4,730	492	3,119
1993–94	8,173	68	4,695	465	2,945

Sound management requires that tax which is not collected and which cannot practicably be collected—for example, because the taxpayer is insolvent or his whereabouts are unknown—should he written off.

Insolvencies, where the Inland Revenue has very little control over the amount recoverable, account for the vast majority of remissions of tax.

The amounts of PAYE and national insurance contributions uncollected and consequently remitted for written off for each year since 1979 are as follows:

corporation tax, (d) PAYE and (e) national insurance contributions in each year since 1979.

Sir George Young

Excluding staff employed on central administration, the table sets out the total numbers of Inland Revenue staff engaged on the collection of tax within the Department's accounts offices, local network, and enforcement offices for each year since 1978–79 and how many were working in the areas of(a) capital gains tax, (b) schedule D tax, (c) corporation tax and (d) PAYE. Under (d) the figures include staff used in collecting PAYE from employers and a relatively small number of schedule E tax assessments. As resource usage of national insurance contribution work is incidental to mainstream tax collection it is not separately recorded.