Stephen O’Brien – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen O’Brien on 2014-04-09.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the statement by the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury in his foreword to HM Revenue and Customs’ consultation document, Tackling marketed tax avoidance, that there is evidence that in the vast majority of cases of challenges in court to tax avoidance schemes, when the dispute is resolved, tax is due, what that evidence is and what the range and frequency of amounts so due has been, on a graduated scale from £1 owing and upwards.

Mr David Gauke

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has been successful in challenging tax avoidance and, in relation to avoidance cases that go to litigation, around 80% of cases litigated resulting in the tax being due. This led to around £1.7 billion of tax being protected in 2013. It is not possible to provide a breakdown of the range and frequency of amounts of tax due without causing undue cost on the department to provide the information.

The Government considered different options for the consultation period for the proposals but concluded that the time period made available was reasonable. There were a very large number of responses, which suggests that the timescale did not cause any undue impediment to those who wished to give their views in response to the consultation. ‘Tackling Marketed Tax Avoidance’ followed on from the earlier consultation over the summer of 2013 ‘Raising the Stakes on Tax Avoidance’, which consulted in detail on the initial proposal for the Follower Notice measure.