Skip to main content

Self-assessment

Volume 455: debated on Wednesday 24 January 2007

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many people are employed to process self-assessment tax returns; and at what cost in each of the last three years; (117145)

(2) what estimate he has made of how much additional tax was (a) collected and (b) rebated in 2006 as a result of the self-assessment process.

The numbers of staff deployed on processing self assessment tax returns, and the related salary costs, for the last three years are shown in the table as follows.

Staff1

Cost2 (£)

2005-06

1,858.36

43,992,454.81

2004-05

1,891.00

36,571,852.81

2003-04

2,005.91

37,088,722.85

1 Staff numbers are expressed as full time equivalents

2 Cost is based on average salaries

The total amount of income tax, class 4 national insurance contributions and capital gains tax collected under Income Tax Self Assessment in the year 2005-06 was £27.998 billion and £4.533 billion was repaid.