16 Rejected

HMRC’s compliance work on 2020–21 payments of the Digital Services Tax was ongoing when we...

Conclusion
HMRC’s compliance work on 2020–21 payments of the Digital Services Tax was ongoing when we took evidence in December 2022.50 This has proved a much larger task than anticipated, as the number of business groups within the scope of the tax requiring review has grown to 101, covering 216 online services. HMRC was still engaged with 46 groups covering 104 online services as of September 2022.51 HMRC told us that it pursues a resource-intensive one-to-one relationship with the businesses that provide the large majority of tax receipts, which involves approving the methodology used by businesses for allocation of taxable revenues to the UK.52 Setting a high threshold for businesses to qualify for paying a tax is a lesson that HM Treasury is applying to other taxes. It allows focus on a smaller number of large payers while sparing smaller businesses from the administrative burden.53
Government Response Summary
The government rejects committing to future reporting on 2020-21 DST compliance or producing a separate DST tax gap assessment, stating it is not practical or a good use of limited resources.
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government Rejected
The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Digital Services Tax (DST) receipts for 2020-21 are already published within the 2021-22 HMRC’s Annual Report and Accounts as a separate line item within the list of other taxes and duties. HMRC will continue compliance activity for 2020-21 returns. The assessments, and any associated litigation may take many years, so it is not practical to commit to future reporting back to the committee. Due to the small size of DST receipts, HMRC do not currently produce a separate assessment of the DST tax gap and do not plan to do so as limited analyst resources are better targeted elsewhere. HMRC will include DST as part of the illustrative ‘other taxes levies and duties’ tax gap published annually. The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: end 2023 The government is committed to implementing Amount A of Pillar One and repealing DST. Ahead of the implementation of Pillar One, the government will continue to monitor DST as part of usual policy maintenance. HMRC has a dedicated DST compliance team working collaboratively with groups to understand their relevant online services and methodologies to identify ‘UK Users’. Where HMRC disagrees with a group’s position, appropriate compliance activity is undertaken. This will continue to be undertaken if DST is in force longer than anticipated. HMRC is enhancing its plans for identifying groups potentially within scope of DST, increasing awareness of DST amongst businesses and addressing the risks posed by groups without a physical presence in the UK that may not regularly engage with HMRC. These plans seek to address the risk of future non-cooperation with the regime and are due to be completed in 2023.
Addressee Bodies
HM Treasury
Timeline
Recommendation age 3.3 yrs
Report published 05 Apr 2023