Wrongly Taxed Army Pensioners

HL Deb 30 January 2002 vol 631 cc39-40WA

Lord Patel of Blackburn

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is the latest estimate of the total cost of refunding tax to those retired Army personnel or their widows and widowers who are or were in receipt of a service invalid pension. [HL2532]

Lord Bach

In his statement in another place on 23 January 2002 (Official Report, col. 891–902) my honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State estimated the total cost of refunding wrongly taxed Army pensioners at around £30 million. The latest Inland Revenue estimate is that, to date, it has refunded in the order of £6.5 million to eligible pensioners or their spouses. We believe that the majority of these pensioners or their spouses have already been identified but we recognise that there may be some beneficiaries eligible to claim where the pensioner is deceased. It is not easy to establish their number or the cost attached to such claims. Nonetheless, we would not expect the total to exceed £30 million and based on the repayments that have been made to all of the cases that have been identified it is likely to be significantly less. Of those so far identified as having wrongly paid tax, only 14 have not yet had refunds.