§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has received 358W the communication from the hon. Member for West Ham, North giving details of Inland Revenue responsibility for the evasion of income tax and surtax; and what action he proposes to take in connection with the same.
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will give for the longest and most convenient stated period of time as full and detailed a statement as is convenient showing the total number of people who were more than one year in arrears with their income tax payments and the amounts of tax owing nationally for each stated year; how many people were, during 1973, owing more than £10,000 for periods of more than one year; how many people declared themselves bankrupt without paying amounts due in tax; and what is the total estimated loss to the revenue caused by such bankruptcies.
§ Mr. NottTables showing the amounts of tax outstanding, ultimately recoverable, presently collectable and written off as irrecoverable through the insolvency of the taxpayer are published annually in the reports of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue. I am afraid that the other figures requested by the hon. Member are not available.
§ Mr. Meacherasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, regarding tax underassessment, what is the latest annual figure; what percentage is accounted for, respectively, by fraud, wilful default and neglect of taxes; and, in each case, what was the breakdown by range of amounts of tax unpaid and how many persons were involved in each range.
§ Mr. NottThe total charge raised in respect of under-assessments to tax uncovered by the Inland Revenue in the year ended 31st March 1973 was £15,430,548 and the number of charges raised was 11,792. In addition, smaller cases settled in that year gave rise to over 63,000 charges and a total charge of £2.7 million. The further information asked for is not available.