Latest news with #HMRevenueAndCustoms
The Independent
2 days ago
- Automotive
- The Independent
Fears of rise in uninsured drivers as insurance tax receipts soar
Consumers paid a total of nearly 9% more in a tax on insurance premiums last year, leading to fears of drivers becoming priced out of policies. The AA, which conducted the research, urged the Treasury to cut the rate of insurance premium tax (IPT) on motor policies by a quarter, with a 50% reduction for newly qualified drivers. The standard rate of IPT – which applies to premiums such as motor insurance – has been 12.0% since 2017. It was 2.5% when it was first introduced in 1994. Premiums being more expensive mean receipts from standard rate IPT totalled £692 million last year, up 8.6% from the previous 12 months. HM Revenue and Customs said the increase was partly caused by 'rising car and property insurance premiums'. AA president Edmund King told the PA news agency: 'Insurance premium tax on motor insurance is a tax on responsible ownership – protecting yourself and third parties from the financial damage of incidents and injuries. 'Surges in the cost of insurance over recent years have ratcheted up the pain for those most prone to paying high premiums. 'Many of those are people least able to afford it, such as young and newly qualified drivers with higher risk as well as low-income policyholders. 'That not only threatens to price them out of cover but tempts more to drive without insurance.' Drivers caught behind the wheel of a vehicle without insurance face a £300 fine and six penalty points. The most serious cases are taken to court, and offenders can receive an unlimited fine and disqualification from driving. A spokesperson for the Association of British Insurers (ABI) said: 'While we appreciate fiscal headroom is limited given pressures on public spending, we continue to believe that insurance premium tax is an unfair levy on a responsible purchase. 'Those who purchase insurance should not be penalised for trying to protect themselves, their loved ones and their property. 'We continue to call for IPT to be frozen until fiscal and financial conditions allow for the standard rate to be cut.' ABI figures show the average cost of motor cover last year was £622, representing a 15% (£78) jump from 2023. This followed a 25% (£109) annual rise from 2022 to 2023. The ABI said total claims payouts rose by 17% in 2024, and stressed that 'work must continue' to tackle the cost of insurance. It wants the Government to focus on issues such as reducing vehicle theft and insurance fraud, and boosting recruitment in the vehicle repair sector. It noted the average cost of policies in the first three months of 2025 was 7% lower than a year earlier. A taskforce led by the Treasury and the Department for Transport focused on the rising cost of car insurance was established in October last year. The body, which brings together industry and consumer groups, is expected to publish its final report in the autumn. A Treasury spokesperson said: 'The overall cost of insurance is determined only in part by insurance premium tax, which contributes over £8 billion a year towards vital public services. 'Our cross-Government taskforce on motor insurance will deliver on our commitment to support drivers by finding ways to tackle the high cost of motor insurance.'
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Taxman's guilt at being British: Fury as HMRC, which can't even answer your phone calls, allows staff event, held during office hours, discussing the 'Guilt of Being British'
Civil servants working for the taxman has come under fire after holding a seminar on the 'Guilt of Being British'. Staff at HM Revenue and Customs were able to log-in remotely and attend the session during office hours yesterday, prompting a furious backlash. It comes amid repeated criticism of HMRC 's performance, with hundreds of thousands of calls from taxpayers going unanswered every month, customers getting surreptitiously cut off, and general concern from MPs over the 'failing' phone service. Kemi Badenoch on Wednesday night described the session as 'nonsense', and challenged Whitehall aides to leave the service if they were not proud of Britain. The Tory leader told the Mail: 'Is it any wonder the public hate dealing with HMRC, now we learn the staff are being taught to feel guilty about being British? 'In government I fought to remove all this nonsense from the Civil Service. Under my leadership, a Conservative government will ensure public bodies are proud of Britain, not ashamed of it. 'We'll defend our history, not apologise for it. And if that offends the Civil Service's seminar circuit, they're welcome to go somewhere else.' The hour-long 'Guilt of Being British: Listening circle' was run by the HMRC Race Network and held from 11am until midday. It was billed as 'a powerful, interactive, and reflective listening circle exploring the emotional complexity of being South Asian and British', covering topics including 'the emotional weight of colonial history' as part of the taxman's commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion. According to a post published on the HMRC's intranet, the session promised to 'delve into themes of guilt, pride, and identity, offering space for personal stories and cultural insights'. Workers were told participants would explore 'the duality of identity - balancing heritage and belonging', and the 'emotional weight of colonial history and inherited trauma'. The internal advert said those attending would discover more about 'career challenges faced by South Asian women - barriers, bias and expectations', and learn how 'storytelling and representation help reclaim our narratives.' A dumbfounded Civil Service source told the Mail: 'This example of a work-time staff event pushing a highly divisive anti-British narrative perfectly encapsulates the nightmare that is Civil Service staff networks. 'Those focused on race and trans in particular seem to operate entirely without scrutiny, and attract large numbers of activist staff, intent on pushing their personal beliefs on their colleagues rather than identifying and tackling actual workplace issues. 'This is a total abandonment of the vital principle of Civil Service political neutrality and makes a lot of us very uncomfortable, but if you challenge these groups on their approaches you risk putting a target on your back. 'As is seen in this event, these networks also enable many people to treat the workplace like their personal therapy centres. 'So many of us are getting on with our jobs and we see colleagues holding listening circles to talk about personal traumas - it fosters resentment and damages public trust.' Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former Tory Cabinet Minister, added: 'It is peculiar that people who hate their country want to run it. 'Perhaps I should offer a course on why being British is to win first prize in the lottery of life.' Joanna Marchong, investigations campaign manager at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'Taxpayers are fed up of bankrolling woke staff networks. 'While HMRC quangocrats sit around in circles whining about colonialism, hard-working Brits are being left on hold for hours on end. 'Staff networks should not be funded by taxpayers and they certainly shouldn't be happening during working hours.' It is not known how many of HMRC's more than 60,000 staff attended the remote event. A spokesman for the taxman said it would have been less than 0.1% and had no impact on its call handling ability. Earlier this year a report by Parliament's Public Accounts Committee found HMRC answered just 66.4 per cent of customers' attempts to speak to an adviser, well below the target of 85 per cent. It said performance reached 'an all-time low'. Around 40,000 customers were cut off in the year 2023-24 if they were waiting for more than 70 minutes, without an explanation, and no callback option was available. The average call wait time exceeded 23 minutes, with HMRC saying it did not have adequate resources to meet telephone demand from customers. The report said: 'HMRC's already poor service to taxpayers has become even worse. 'The PAC is concerned that HMRC has degraded its own phone services - willing to let them fail, in the hope that people will be forced to go online.' HMRC's most recent monthly performance report, however, shows signs of improvement - 80 per cent of calls were handled in March, while average call time waits were down to 14 minutes and 44 seconds. An HMRC spokesman said: 'Events by staff networks should not be taken as reflecting the views of HMRC. 'An event like this would only be attended by around 0.1% of staff, which would have no impact on our ability to staff our helplines. We have robust processes in place to ensure our phonelines are well-resourced throughout the day.' It comes after the Mail last week revealed the NHS budgeted nearly £2 million for similar staff networks in the health service, many of whom hold 'woke' events for staff. They included an event on 'Embracing Asexuality', a talk on 'Embracing your Afro/Curly hair' and another on 'International Pronouns Day'.
Telegraph
02-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Double-digit rise in northerners paying inheritance tax
Northern households are increasingly being caught in the Government's inheritance tax raid, new data shows. Since 2015, there has been a 40pc surge in the number of families in the North West forced to pay death duties due to the Government's frozen thresholds. This was the biggest increase of any region in England. Properties in the north of the country are far cheaper than in the south, yet frozen thresholds coupled with house price inflation mean smaller estates are being dragged into inheritance tax. The top three postcodes which saw the sharpest rise in families paying inheritance tax between 2015 and 2022 were Wolverhampton, Bradford and Dundee, according to data from HM Revenue and Customs obtained by the law firm Irwin Mitchell in a Freedom of Information request. The number of London families dragged into the net rose by only 4pc over the same period. Each individual can leave behind up to £325,000 without paying inheritance tax, however, this tax-free allowance has been frozen since 2009 despite soaring house prices. Had the Government increased the threshold in line with inflation, it would be worth almost £520,000 today. It means families who might not consider themselves wealthy are increasing forced to pay the 40pc charge. The modest rise in Londoners paying inheritance could reflect the use of tax avoidance strategies among the wealthy elite, according to Irwin Mitchell. Despite this, the amount of tax paid by Londoners still leapt by over 40pc due to the number of high value estates in the capital. Families in inner London forked out £831m in 2015, but Irwin Mitchell predicts this will hit £1.6bn by 2026-27. Meanwhile, it expects the tax haul in Wolverhampton to soar from £8m in 2015-16 to £38m by 2026-27 – an increase of 375pc in just over a decade. England has long suffered from a North-South divide, with workers in the South East earning on average £12,800 more than in the lowest paid areas of the country such as Burnley and Huddersfield, according to research from Centre for Cities. The average property in the North West sells for about £250,000, almost half the value of a typical home in the South East. Chris Etherington, of accountants RSM, said the number of northerners paying inheritance tax will rise again because of the changes to business tax relief announced in the October Budget. As part of her maiden budget, Rachel Reeves slashed tax relief for business owners and farmers while also making pensions liable for the 40pc charge, dragging an estimated 10,000 new families into the net. Mr Etherington said: 'There are significant numbers of privately owned businesses in the North that will be impacted by the changes to inheritance tax reliefs from April 2026, and it is inevitable more estates will have a tax bill to pay as a result. 'There are thriving entrepreneurial businesses in the North, in particular in industries such as manufacturing and technology, and many business owners are still unaware of the inheritance tax implications that lie ahead.' This comes as a study by Family Business UK warns that the new inheritance tax rules for family businesses and farmers could wipe almost £15bn off the UK's economic activity. Andy Butcher, of wealth manager Raymond James, said: 'How are business owners supposed to plan for their succession when the business will now likely have to be sold on their death to cover inheritance tax? It's a short-term cash grab which will cause significant damage to the UK economy in the longer term.' Homeowners passing on their main property can claim an additional £175,000 allowance called the residence nil-rate band. Couples can share their allowances which means they can protect up to £1m from the 40pc charge.
