Income tax assessments and previous FOI response in relation to 2012 (FOI)

​Request

Following the reply to FOI request “Income tax assessed in different bands 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2012 (FOI)” for the year 2012 could you please break down the “total income“ column into “earned income” and “other income”.

To clarify, by “earned income” I mean income that would also be subject to social security contributions ie salaries, bonuses etc.

Response

Extraction of the data to provide the response to this request has highlighted an error in the table provided in the answer to the previous request.

Income tax assessed in different bands 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2012 (FOI)

This was in respect of the final column “Tax liability”. 

The corrected table for 2012 is therefore reproduced below and a complete corrected version of the initial response is appended.

The following table provides the additional details as requested. 

The earned income in this table is restricted to salaries, bonuses etc. 

It specifically excludes pension income which is included as “other income” as pension income (although treated as “earned” income for tax purposes) would not normally be subject to social security contributions:

Explanatory notes

Since publication of the data in respect of the initial request, a number of 2012 assessments have been reassessed. 

The above table is based on the revised assessment and therefore differs slightly from the previous figures. 

The analysis is based on the same personal taxpayers and personal non taxpayers as in the previous analysis although two taxpayers have been removed as they no longer fit the criteria to be included.

As with the previous analysis, only personal taxpayers and personal non taxpayers are included. 

Personal taxpayers exclude non residents, trusts and estates.

A personal taxpayer is defined as an individual / married couple / civil partnership which has completed an income tax return and has a positive income tax liability greater than £50 for the tax year, based on their income, allowances and deductions for that year.

Personal taxpayers whose liability is less than £50 are not included as personal taxpayers. 

This is consistent with the Taxes Office’s historical position on compiling tax data.

In this context:

• single individuals are counted as one personal taxpayer

• married couples / civil partnerships that have not opted for separate assessments
  are counted as one personal taxpayer

• Married couples / civil partnerships that have opted for separate assessments are counted as two personal taxpayers

• A personal non taxpayer is an individual / married couple / civil partnership which has completed an income tax return and does not have a positive income tax liability for the tax year, based on the income, allowances, reliefs and deductions for the year.

• total income (assessable for tax) is the sum of a taxpayer’s income taken into account in calculating income tax liabilities. Total income is measured before tax allowances and any other deductions have been taken into account

• tax liability refers to a taxpayers overall tax liability and is before the deduction of any foreign or domestic tax credit

Corrected previous FOI response request

Could you please provide the following information for the years 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2012.

A.

Number of people with a total personal income declared to the Income Tax department of under £50,000.

B.

The total income declared in this band.

C.

The total income tax assessed in this band.

And the same information for income bands:

50,000 to 99,999
100,000 to 199,000
200,000 to 299,000
200,000 to 399.000
400,000 to 499,000
500,000 to 999,999
1,000,000 and above.

Response

For the purposes of this answer, the Taxes Office has applied the following interpretations:

For total income declared, the figures provided are for total income (assessable for tax). 

This is because where the income assessed differs from income declared on an individual tax return, the actual income declared will not be recorded on the Taxes Office system.

In respect of the total income tax assessed, the Taxes Office has provided details of the tax liability.

Definitions of total income (assessable to tax) and tax liability are included in the explanatory notes below.
Download income tax assessment information (size 117kb)

Explanatory notes

The above data is the position as at March 2015.

A Registered Entity (Individuals) is an individual registered with the Taxes Office, irrespective of whether they have a tax liability for the tax year or not.

The data in the above tables excludes those Registered Entities (individuals) who are registered with the Taxes Office but who are either:

I. not required to complete an income tax return because the Taxes Office is satisfied that their total annual income is consistently below the tax exemption thresholds (eg their sole source of income is an old age pension or their sole source of income arises from employment which is consistently below the tax exemption threshold); or

II. non residents for income tax purposes

A Registered Entity (individuals) includes an individual taxpayer and an individual non taxpayer.

An individual taxpayer is defined as an individual who has completed an income tax return and calculated to have a positive income tax liability greater than £50 for the tax year, based on the income, allowances and deductions, for the year.

Based on latest Taxes Office figures, there are less than 300 individual taxpayers whose liability was less than £50 with a combined total value of less than £8,500. These are counted as individual non taxpayers. This is consistent with the Taxes Office historical position on gathering tax data.

An individual non taxpayer is defined as an individual who has completed an income tax return and does  not have a positive income tax liability for the tax year, based on the income, allowances, reliefs and deductions for the year.

Both individual taxpayers and individual non taxpayers include:

• single individuals
  
• married couples / civil partnerships that have not opted for separate assessments (counted as one individual taxpayer or one individual non taxpayer)
  
• married couples / civil partners that have opted for separate assessments (counted as two individual taxpayers or two individual non taxpayers)
  

Total income (assessable to tax) is the sum of a taxpayer’s income taken into account in calculating income tax liabilities. 

Total income is measured before tax allowances and any other deductions have been taken into account.

Tax liability refers to individuals overall tax liability and is before the deduction of any foreign or domestic tax credit.