Wales reports £300m in tax revenue

Wales has raised over £300m in tax revenue, according to statistics from the Welsh Revenue Authority’s (WRA) report and accounts for 2019-20.

The WRA is the tax authority established by the Welsh government in 2017, which is responsible for collecting and managing the first two devolved taxes in Wales: land transaction tax and landfill disposal tax.

The tax authority continued to use its partnership approach to tax – helping people to pay the right tax at the right time – and merged it with a process called ‘managing tax risk’.

The WRA said it has protected between an estimated £1.2m and £1.6m over the next three years using this approach.

Kathryn Bishop, chair of the WRA, said: “We’re still a young organisation, but our first year delivering our first, full Corporate Plan has demonstrated how we’re maturing into our role and supporting the delivery of a fair tax system in Wales.

“We’re pleased to report positive results overall, despite challenges such as Covid-19, which tested our resilience, as it is doing for many others across Wales.”

She added: “We’d like to thank all those who have continued to support us and, importantly, our people, for their commitment to service delivery which raises vital revenue for Wales.”

Dyfed Alsop, Chief Executive of the WRA, said: “From day one, we’ve taken a partnership approach to tax, helping people to pay the correct tax at the right time. This resulted in us raising £300m in tax to fund Welsh public services during the year.

“We also introduced our own way of managing tax risk. We use this innovative approach to identify errors in tax returns and find ways to reduce or prevent the risk of further cases from happening again in future.”

He added: “We have more to do, but we’re starting to see evidence that our way of delivering public services, which involves working together to manage tax, is proving effective.”