§ Mr. Gordon Brownasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he is satisfied with the current rate and scale of payment of (a) petroleum revenue tax and (b) corporation tax by the major companies operating in the North sea.
§ Mr. Lawson[pursuant to the reply, 28 February 1984]: I regret that it is not the practice of Chancellors to comment on levels of taxation in the period immediately prior to the Budget.
§ Mr. Gordon Brownasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the proportion of projected income from North sea oil and gas which will come from royalties, petroleum revenue tax, corporation tax, the supplementary tax and any other source.
§ Mr. Moore[pursuant to his reply, 28 February 1984]: The percentage of total tax take in 1983–84 from North sea oil and gas attributable to individual types of tax is expected to be:
per cent. Royalties 21 Petroleum revenue tax (including advance payments) 69 Corporation tax (before ACT set-off) 10 Supplementary petroleum duty was abolished from 1 January 1983.
229W
§ Mr. Gordon Brownasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what was the corporation tax liability of all companies combined working on the United Kingdom continental shelf for each year since 1964; and how much has been paid in each year;
(2) what has been the total amount of corporation tax paid in each year since the Continenal Shelf Act 1964 by companies holding North sea production licences or drilling rig operators, companies fabricating deep-water platforms, modules and skid mounted equipment and North sea diving companies.
§ Mr. Lawson[pursuant to the reply, 28 February 1984]: The following table gives the estimates of corporation tax payable (before ACT set off) and mainstream corporation tax paid in the financial years 1976–77 to 1982–83 on profits arising from the extraction of North sea oil and gas; the annual corporation tax liability in years prior to 1976–77 was less than £5 million.
Corporation tax payable before ACT set-off £ million mainstream corporation tax paid 1976–77 10 5 1977–78 10 5 1978–79 90 50 1979–80 270 170 1980–81 480 240 1981–82 650 410 1982–83 460 230 Figures for the corporation tax liabilities and payments of all other companies working on the United Kingdom continental shelf, and of other companies which supply offshore equipment, are not held centrally.