HL Deb 24 March 1980 vol 407 cc600-2WA
Baroness WOOTTON of ABINGER

asked Her Majesty's Government:

At what figure they estimate outstanding arrears of income tax; and how much of this is regarded as irrecoverable.

The MINISTER of STATE, TREASURY (Lord Cockfield)

Some ₣1,600 million of assessed income tax (that is, excluding PAYE tax deducted and payable by employers to the Inland Revenue) was outstanding at 7th March 1980. This included some ₣1,050 million for which collection has been postponed pending agreement of the liability. The amount of PAYE tax outstanding from employers is not known precisely, but in the case of those employers whose monthly payments of tax and national insurance contributions normally exceed ₣2,000 it is estimated to have been in the region of ₣280 million at 26th February.

I regret that it is not possible to make any reliable estimate of the tax which will ultimately be irrecoverable. Details of tax remitted or written off as irrecoverable are published in the Annual Report of the Board of Inland Revenue: for 1978 the figure was ₣43 million.

House adjourned at seven minutes before eleven o'clock.