Tax take stable

Britain’s largest companies contributed an almost identical tranche of tax receipts to the Treasury at £77.1bn in 2012, as it did the year before, a survey has revealed.

That’s the finding of the Hundred Group, which represents the finance directors of the UK’s biggest businesses - mainly from boardrooms of the FTSE100 – whose survey showed the figure was only marginally down on last year’s tax take of £77.2bn.

The body, whose members employ 2m people, said taxes had increased by 19% since 2005 when the study began. For every £1 of corporation tax, businesses now bear £2 in other taxes, almost twice as much as in 2005. It said a range of other taxes borne now significantly outweigh corporation tax and have driven the 19% increase in tax payments.

Andrew Bonfield, chairman of the group’s tax committee, said:

‘These latest results show the continued significant contribution of Hundred Group companies to the UK economy, despite the double dip recession.’

‘The changing composition of taxes on businesses reflects the policy of successive governments looking for stable tax revenues and economic growth. We’re in the middle of a well trailed programme for reducing the rate of corporation tax while other business taxes, such as employer’s national insurance contributions and irrecoverable VAT, have risen. These other taxes tend to be easier to collect and less volatile since they’re not dependent on profits.’

The survey was carried out using the PwC Total Tax Contribution (TTC) methodology. This makes a distinction between taxes borne and taxes collected on behalf of the Government.

Taxes borne are the company’s immediate cost and will impact their results, such as business rates, corporation tax, employers' NICs and irrecoverable VAT. Taxes collected are those generated and administered by firms such as income tax under PAYE and NICs from employees, general VAT and excise duties.

Mary Monfries, head of tax policy and regulation at PwC, added:

‘There’s unprecedented interest in the amount of corporation tax businesses pay. The current debate sometimes confuses compliance with the rules with tax policy itself. Government policy has changed and our study shows the picture of tax paid has changed as businesses comply with the rules.’