Tax (Hansard, 19 May 2003)

§ Vernon Coaker
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the impact of the new tax credits on entitlement to(a) housing benefit and (b) council tax benefit; and if he will make a statement. [113588]

§ Dawn Primarolo
As a result of the increased generosity of the working and child tax credits that were introduced in April 2003, it is estimated that up to 50,000 households could be floated off housing benefit, while up to 150,000 households could be floated off council tax benefit.

§ Mr. Willetts
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many(a) individuals and (b) households, broken down by those who are in work and those that are out of work and those in receipt of benefit and those that are not in receipt of benefit, face marginal rates of tax and benefit withdrawal of over (i) 40 per cent., (ii) 50 per cent., (iii) 60 per cent., (iv) 70 per cent., (v) 89 per cent., (vi) 90 per cent, and (vii) 100 per cent. [114413]

§ Mr. Boateng
This information is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
575W

§ Mr. Burstow
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how long on average each tax office is taking to process tax returns; and how many returns have been outstanding for(a) six weeks, (b) nine weeks, (c) 12 weeks and (d) more than 12 weeks. [113533]

§ Dawn Primarolo
The Inland Revenue does not collect the exact information in the form requested.
Annex A—Table 1 details the rate of capture for SA. Returns in respect of all return years over the past two financial years. This is shown as an age profile against the date of receipt of the return.
Annex B—Table 2 details the number of returns which remain for processing that are more than 45 days from the date of receipt.