Treasury admits non-dom figures are wrong

THE TREASURY has confirmed that figures given to Parliament by Exchequer secretary to the Treasury David Gauke were incorrect, following an analysis by Accountancy Age.

The article questioned figures in a parliamentary answer on the number of non-domiciled individuals (non-doms) that the Treasury expects to pay the remittance charge in 2012-13. Gauke claimed that 7,400 people will pay the charge – which means non-doms only pax tax on money remitted to the UK and not on worldwide income – in 2011-12, rising to 9,600 in 2012-13.

However, this is at odds with figures published in the consultation document released this month, which suggest that 3,500 people will stop paying the remittance charge in 2012-13. If these figures were correct then there would have to be 5,700 new non-doms paying the remittance charge in 2012-13 to cover these 3,500 people and a rise of 2,200 overall.

A Treasury spokesman told Accountancy Age that the figures in the parliamentary answer were too high. The new figures will have to go through processes before going to Parliament, he added.

Alex Henderson, a partner at PwC, had said: “There is clearly some arithmetic going on but they are going in opposite directions. I would be surprised if there was a sudden influx of people who want to pay this tax. There seems to be a few assumptions; nobody has precise information about what the number will be at the end of the day and it must be speculation.”