Written question asked by Lord McCabe (Labour) on Tuesday, 24 March 2015, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 26 March 2015. It was answered by David Gauke (Conservative) on Thursday, 26 March 2015 on behalf of the Treasury.

VAT

Question: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average length of time was for a decision to be made by HM Revenue and Customs related to a business VAT return in each year since 2010.

Answer

HM Revenue & Customs receive over 99% of VAT returns from business electronically. These are processed automatically. We commit to processing all VAT Returns within 8 days of receipt.

All returns where a repayment is claimed are subject to an automated risk process, following which HMRC either makes the repayment or carries out further checks. HMRC has a statutory responsibility to take decisions on repayments within 30 days. In cases where HMRC does not achieve this, it is required to pay a repayment supplement. In 2013/14, HMRC met its statutory responsibility in over 99% of cases.

Returns where a payment is due are not subject to the same automated risk assessment. Cases are selected for compliance checks on the basis of a range of risk factors not necessarily triggered by individual VAT returns. We therefore do not have information on the average length of time for a decision to be made related to a business VAT return in each year since 2010.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 228906
Session: 2014-15
Subjects: VAT
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.parliament.uk

VAT

Secondary information

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