Taxes and Benefits (Hansard, 10 July 2003)

§ John Healey

The Information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Colin Mowl to Mr. Matthew Taylor, dated 10 July 2003: The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question to the Chancellor of the Exchequer asking which taxes were the main component elements of (a) other indirect taxes and (b) other intermediate taxes, described in the document "The effects of taxes and benefits on household income 2001–02". I am replying in his absence. (124449) The above document was produced by the ONS and published on the National Statistics website on April 11^th 2003 and in Economic Trends in the May 2003 edition. The analysis can be obtained from the House of Commons library. This includes measures of income inequality for the United Kingdom as a whole based on data from the Expenditure and Food Survey. Indirect taxes paid by households are estimated approximately for this analysis. Indirect taxes paid by households on final goods and services are broken down in the tables into: VAT; duty on tobacco, alcohol and hydrocarbon oils; vehicle excise duty; television licences; stamp duties on house purchase; customs duties; betting taxes; insurance premium tax; air passenger duty; Camelot National Lottery Fund; and 'other indirect taxes'. The components of 'other indirect taxes' are: stamp duties on share dealings, legal and commercial documents; and taxi licenses. Total 'intermediate taxes' are that portion of 'indirect taxes' which are passed on by businesses to households. These are broken down in the tables into: commercial and industrial rates; employers' National Insurance contributions; duty on hydrocarbon oil; vehicle excise duty; and 'other intermediate taxes'. The main components of 'other intermediate taxes' are the estimates of VAT and stamp duty, which are passed on by businesses to households.