Report No. 37: Tax Records as a Statistical Resource - A Review
The report is stored as a pdf file only, click here to view it. The cover letter addressed to the chair of HM Revenue and Customs can be accessed here.
The Statistics Commission today publishes a review of the potential value of taxation records for statistical and research purposes. It makes a case for providing users with more support and – in some cases – more data drawn from UK tax records. These records are already an important source of statistical information but have the potential to shed further light on vital areas of statistical information, from household income and wealth through to population and migration patterns.
The UK has strong statutory controls on the transfer of personal information between different parts of government, and specially such information held by tax authorities. This contrasts with the statutory position in some other advanced countries that allow – and indeed require – statistical authorities to draw on the administrative records of the tax offices as the preferred source of statistical information. The UK position has the practical effect of impeding the use of tax records by the Office for National Statistics and other government statistical agencies. However there may be scope to better exploit the potential of tax records without major legislative change, especially following the passage of the Statistics and Registration Service Act which comes into force in April 2008.
The Statistics Commission’s review looks at the current and potential future use of tax data and explores the barriers that inhibit these uses. Our recommendations are set out in full in the report and are mostly addressed to HM Revenue & Customs.
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