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Written question asked by Michael Meacher (Labour) on Monday, 23 April 2012, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 26 April 2012. It was answered by David Gauke (Conservative) on Monday, 30 April 2012 on behalf of the Treasury.

Tax Allowances: Art Works

Question
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many and what value of assets he has allowed under the conditional exemption scheme for art works in each of the last 20 years; what the level of (a) inheritance tax and (b) capital gains tax foregone by the Exchequer as a result was in each such year; and how many (i) art works, (ii) art collections, (iii) castles, (iv) stately homes, (v) gardens and (vi) landed estates benefitted from such provisions.
Answer

[holding answer 26 April 2012]: The number and value of assets allowed under the conditional exemption scheme and the amount of inheritance tax foregone are shown in the following table.

£ million Numbers of items
Total value of assets Level of inheritance tax foregone¹ Chattels/artwork Land
1994-95 to 1996-97 384 145 n/a n/a
1997-98 to 1999-2000 243 100 7,346 29
2000-01 to 2002-03 128 49 15,674 13
2003-04 to 2005-06 n/a 107 1,657 5
2006-07 to 2008-09 215 84 5,293 8
2009-10 to 2011-12 128 51 1,969 8
¹ The amount of inheritance tax foregone given are the amounts allowed on claims. Tax will also be received on assets which become liable to inheritance tax or estate duty when they leave conditional exemption.

The amount of capital gains tax foregone has been less than £1 million in each year since 1997-98.It is not possible to show the data for individual years as requested due to the risk of disclosure of information about an individual taxpayer. The data has been totalled across three years to prevent this. While assets can be broken down between chattels and land, further breakdowns are not available. Data for earlier years are not available.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
105700; 543 c1202W
Session
2010-12
Subjects
Artworks Tax allowances
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk