2022 HMRC statistics announcements
Updated 21 March 2022
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schedule-of-updates-for-hmrcs-statistics/2022-hmrc-statistics-announcements
As part of the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, any changes to the HMRC annual scheduled updates will be stated and detailed on this page.
March
10 March 2022: Customs Importer and Exporter Population 2021
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has published the UK Importer and Exporter Population publication for each calendar year from 2016 to 2020, providing an annual count of importing and exporting businesses trading with European Union member states and with non-EU countries.
The publication has been retitled as the Customs Importer and Exporter Population. This release will be published at 9.30am, 8th April 2022.
On 1 January 2021, the UK officially left the European Customs Union; this has led to changes in the way HMRC collects statistical data. It follows that a methodology change was needed to accurately represent the trade in goods population post 2021, this included changes to:
- Definition of a Trader
- Geographic area covered
- Inclusion of non-VAT registered business trading with the EU and Low Value traders
- Data sources for EU trade in goods
This means the figures contained in the release will not be comparable to those in previous releases.
If you have any further queries, please contact: uktradeinfo@hmrc.gov.uk
10 March 2022: Identified error within VAT registered population statistics
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have identified an error in VAT registered population statistics affecting the Value Added Tax (VAT) annual statistics and Numbers of taxpayers and registered traders Official Statistics.
The error has caused an underreporting of de-registrations since April 2019, and as a result the published overall VAT registered population at the end of the 2020 to 2021 financial year is approximately 5% too high.
Once the error has been fully investigated and quality assured, the corrected data series will be included within the scheduled update to the Number of taxpayers and registered traders publication on the 29 April 2022. The VAT statistics will be updated on the same day.
The affected data series is also found within the discontinued Value Added Tax (VAT) bulletin. This publication will be withdrawn on the same date and all data can be found within the Value Added Tax annual statistics.
If you have any queries relating to these statistics, please contact: revenuemonitoring@hmrc.gov.uk
February
8 February 2022: Correction to ‘Measuring tax gaps 2021 edition’
HMRC have identified an error in the ‘Measuring tax gaps 2021 edition’ official statistics published in September 2021. This error caused an overestimation of the Corporation Tax gap and resulted in an overestimation of the overall tax gap in 2019 to 2020 and 2018 to 2019 of 0.1 percentage points in both years.
The corrected UK tax gap is estimated to be 5.2% of total theoretical tax liabilities (£34.8 billion) in 2019 to 2020 (0.1 percentage points or £0.6 billion lower than previously published) and 4.9% (£32.2 billion) in 2018 to 2019 (0.1 percentage points or £0.4 billion lower than previously published).
The corrected Corporation Tax gap is estimated to be 7.2% (£5.2 billion) in 2019 to 2020 (0.8 percentage points or £0.6 billion lower than previously published) and 7.3% (£4.7 billion) in 2018 to 2019 (0.6 percentage points or £0.4 billion lower than previously published).
These corrections will not be reflected in our ‘Measuring tax gaps 2021’ publication. HMRC has published a correction note on GOV.UK on the ‘Measuring tax gaps’ landing page and the start of the ‘Measuring tax gaps 2021 edition’ publication to ensure users of the statistics easily access the corrected statistics.
HMRC’s next ‘Measuring tax gaps’ publication, which is planned for publication on 23 June 2022, will include revised estimates for the tax gap time series. The tax gap estimates will be corrected alongside other updates HMRC make to the tax gap time series to reflect the latest data available and methodological improvements.
If you have any queries relating to these statistics, please contact taxgap@hmrc.gov.uk.
January
27 January 2022: Change to the release date of the UK regional trade in goods statistics: fourth quarter 2021
From January 2021, EU Exports data collection methods changed from Intrastat to the Customs export declarations. This has caused data for certain goods not being processed in time for the planned RTS publication date.
Delaying the release to include this data ensures the accuracy and quality is maintained.
The 2021 quarter 4 release will move from 17 March 2022 to 7 April 2022.
If you have any further queries, please contact: uktradeinfo@hmrc.gov.uk