Speeches by Hatton.

“This is on offshore.”

“I appreciate that we have already talked about the consultation work that is under way. HMRC does have existing powers to go after and tackle tax advisers who are facilitating non-compliance, but you do not always use those existing powers. I think I am right in saying that there were no penalties levied on the enabler…”

“Do you think that you have? A lot of our constituents would think that HMRC is hopelessly outgunned and that there is, quite frankly, a very well-trained and very knowledgeable part of our professional services sector who go about their life making HMRC’s job pretty impossible. What we would like to see is reassurance …”

“If I could just come in there, JP, Philippa started to touch upon this in her response earlier, but the situation is quite a grave one. We know that London is a world-renowned hub for professional services, which means that, perhaps more than any other city on the planet, we have an army of lawyers, accountants, promot…”

“Is looking at an exit tax part of HMRC’s consideration?”

“Are you able to give us a timeframe for when that work began and when we can hope to see it conclude?”

“I appreciate that it is already in place, but there does seem to be some uncertainty around how much tax will be collected through the changes to non-dom. With that in mind, and there being a risk there, has HMRC done the necessary internal work to look at whether an exit tax or something along those lines would make t…”

“Could you go into a bit more detail about what work HMRC is currently undertaking to ensure that the changes to the non-dom tax regime actually mean that more tax is collected? That is what the majority of our constituents probably are keen to see. This change has been much trumpeted and I think we would all want to se…”

“Without wanting to stray into tax policy, for all the obvious reasons, the United Kingdom is, at the moment, the only country in the G7, aside from Italy, that allows very wealthy individuals to build up capital gains while living here. They do not have any obligation to pay tax on these gains if they then leave before…”

“It is a decade old. If there is not anything out there in the public domain, that is quite frustrating for us to understand whether the very wealthiest pay their income tax, just the same as all of my constituents do, who are not super rich.”

“Could we get a figure for the financial years since 2014-15? I was still at university at the time of that figure. It would be great to see whether that has gone up, down or stayed the same.”

“I should correct the record there. Those figures are from a previous Public Accounts Committee report on this subject. That is not from the NAO, but from a previous report. Those are the figures regardless. I just want to make sure we have the correct source on record. Also, is that the most recent data? Is that £3.5 b…”

“They are from the NAO Report. It has fallen from £4.4 billion in 2009-10 to £3.5 billion in 2014-15.”

“I have just one final point I would like to go on to. Why has the amount of income tax paid by the very wealthiest in this country gone down, falling from £4.4 billion in 2009-10 to just £3.5 billion in 2014-15?”

“Perhaps, JP, it would be useful for you to come in here, as a new chief executive of HMRC. As my colleague Nesil has just pointed out, we know how much tax is collected through PAYE, which is how the majority of our constituents pay their tax every month. Do you understand that, actually, if we were to publish more inf…”

“Going on the point that you just made, Philippa, about expanding our view from not just billionaires but to the very wealthy in general, is there anything stopping HMRC from publishing the total amount of tax paid by the very wealthiest in this country? Like you said, you do not segment it, but you must have an idea of…”

“Are you able to perhaps come back with some more written information to this Committee to explain how you are going to create greater transparency around how much tax is collected by HMRC from the very wealthiest? That is essential for improving the public’s confidence in your ability at HMRC to do your job of collecti…”

“Now that that change to the non-dom tax regime has been made, do you not think it would be valuable for HMRC to know how many billionaires are paying tax in the UK and how many paid tax in the UK in the last financial year? If you generate your wealth here, do your business here and are tax resident here, we should pro…”

“Before we move on, I have one final question, and I think I probably know the answer. Does HMRC know internally, and is it willing to publish it if it does, how much tax billionaires paid to HMRC in the previous financial year? Do you have that information, or do you not think it is worth having if you do not?”

“That is reassuring to hear. My understanding is that, in the United States, they allow academic researchers to make that link between tax records and the Forbes 400 list, which I suppose is their equivalent of the Sunday Times Rich List. Would you allow HMRC to do a similar thing, where it works with academics and othe…”