§ Mr. David Mitchellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what percentage of the tax returns of self-employed persons and traders are being investigated in depth to ensure that they have no undisclosed earnings; and what percentage of PAYE taxpayers are similarly being investigated to see whether they have any undeclared earnings from other employment.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonThe number of returns currently under investigation to ensure there are no undisclosed earnings from self employment is approximately 68,000 which amounts to 2.6 per cent of the 1.8 million who are self-employed. The returns of employees who have additional income from self employment are subject to the same checks as the returns of other self-employed persons, and are included in the figures above, but separate records are not kept. Taxpayers with two or more employments should be subject to PAYE on their earnings from each source.