§ Mr. CotterTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many ex parte hearings at tax appeal tribunal level there have been in each of the last five years. [122721]
§ Jane KennedyEx parte hearings are applications from the Inland Revenue for Consent to issue a notice requiring the production of documents or information. The application is made to a single commissioner of income tax, and is not considered to be a part of the appeals meeting. The number of these applications is not reported separately from the meeting statistics.
§ Mr. CotterTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many tax appeal tribunals have been held in each year following the introduction of self-assessment [122722]
§ Jane KennedySelf-assessment was introduced with effect from 6 April 1996 and applied to returns for the 1996–97 tax year. The time limit for these returns to be set to the Inland Revenue was 1 January 1998. While information on the number of tax appeal tribunal hearings is not available, the number of appeals decided in 1998 by the General Commissioners of Income Tax are 95,073.
The cases heard by the Special Commissioners of Income Tax are 92.
Figures for 1999 will be available in July.
§ Mr. CotterTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many tax appeal tribunals were held in each of the three years before the introduction of self-assessment. [122723]
§ Jane KennedySelf-assessment returns were introduced with effect from 6 April 1996, with the first returns being issued after 5 April 1997. The time limit for these returns to be sent to the Inland Revenue was 31 January 1998. While information on the number of tax appeal tribunal hearings is not available, the figures for decisions to 31 December in each year are:
General commissioners of income tax Special commissioners of income tax 1995 215,000 50 1996 241,472 84 1997 208,824 83