0845 – The truth comes out

It’s been a long running question about where the cash from HMRC’s premium number rates go. I put in a FoI request three years ago asking how much money was made and who made it. HMRC said that the information was too “commercially sensitive” to release. Then back in 2011 Lesley Strathie  had a pop, which you can see here. But she didn’t get much further than me.

Here’s the thing, many people phone up HMRC because they want to pay the right amount of tax, but to call they have to pay an arm and a leg for the privilege of being put on hold.

Finally HMRC has now come forward and said how much money is made out of the numbers, they’ve said it’s a, “small amount of profit… considerably less than a million.”

I’m guessing that what HMRC thinks of as “small” is different from what you and I think. So the bottom line is that these numbers generate around £1,000,000 from the good people who are just trying to get their tax right.

Oh, and does any of this cash reach hospitals or help build roads? No it all goes Cable&Wireless. Go figure.

To read the full story from The Telegraph click here.