§ Mr. Rookerasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish in theOfficial Reportthe letter he sent dated 28th September 1978 to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr which gave figures for uncollected income tax, surtax, corporation tax and capital gains tax for the accounting year to 31st October 1977; and when the corresponding figures for the year to 31st October 1978 will be available.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon,pursuant to his reply[Official Report4th December 1978; Vol. 959, c. 504],gave the following answer
Yes:
the Board of Inland Revenue, Command Paper No. 7092, did not contain a table showing the analysis of tax outstanding; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon,pursuant to his reply[Official Report, 28th November 1978; Vol. 958, c. 192],gave the following information
In its report for the year ended 31st March 1977 (Cmnd. 7092) the Board has tried to present, in table 6, information about tax outstanding in a way which shows more clearly how effectively tax 387W has been collected. It has found that following a change in the method of analysing arrears the estimate of tax ultimately recoverable is no longer sufficiently reliable to justify its inclusion with other statistics relating to outstanding 388W tax. The new table, Table 6, includes most of the information provided by the old table and compares the tax outstanding with the tax collected and the net tax charged. Paragraphs 43–45 of the report provide a commentary on the figures.