§ Mr. WillettsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Tooting (Mr. Cox) of 10 May 2002,Official Report, column 396W, on income tax, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of pensioners paid income tax in each year since 1992 broken down into figures for each tax bracket. [62579]
§ Dawn PrimaroloEstimates of the number and proportion of pensioner taxpayers by tax bracket are shown in the table.
Total Including internal cases of 1997–98 83 13 1998–99 57 8 1999–2000 55 2 2000–01 68 24 Plus tax credit cases 2 — Total 70 The internal cases detailed include those cases of Inland Revenue employees who were prosecuted. They also include external accomplices.
The 2000–01 figure of 70 prosecutions includes two cases of tax credit fraud.
§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much funding has been given to investigating tax evasion in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [64251]
§ Dawn PrimaroloThe amounts of funding given to investigating tax evasion are not recorded in this way by the Inland Revenue.
289WThe annual report of the Inland Revenue records figures for the resources allocated to each of its departmental objectives. A copy of this report is in the House of Commons Library.
One such objective is
bringing into the Exchequer the taxes, national insurance contributions and other receipts, maintaining contributory records and disbursing tax reliefs and credits, for which the Revenue are responsible".The resources attributed to the meeting of this objective include those which will be used in the investigation of tax evasion, together with other activities aimed at tackling non-compliance more generally. For example, there are some sections of offices and even some individuals, involved in a spread of compliance activities and it is not practical to isolate the funding figures in the way this question has been asked.