The annual release of corporation tax (CT) statistics shows receipts in 2013-14 totalled £38.7bn compared to the previous year’s total of £39.5bn, a 2% decline which is partly attributable to a halving in life assurance receipts and falling returns from offshore receipts.

The figures show life assurance receipts declined by 50%, from £1.4bn to £700m, while offshore receipts also fell markedly, reducing from £4.4bn in 2012-13 to £3.6bn in 2013-14. Over the same period bank levy receipts increased from £1.6bn to £2.2bn.

Total receipts remain below the previous high of £44.3bn in 2006-07, pre the financial crisis, which HMRC says is due in part to reductions in the rate of CT since that date.  

This set of statistics includes details of the latest receipts and liabilities tables together for the first time. Total CT liabilities for 2012-13, the most recent available, were £41.3bn, compared to £43.8bn in 2011-12, a 4% drop.

Sharp declines in production and a rise in capital expenditure saw CT liabilities from ring-fenced oil and gas companies decrease from £8.3bn in 2011-12 to £4.3bn in 2012-13, a 43% drop.

The tables show that from 2002-03 onwards CT liabilities rose steadily to a peak in 2007-08, but then fell in 2008-09 and 2009-10 as a result of the global financial crisis and economic slowdown. Liabilities in the last three years are back above £40bn per year.

Industrial and commercial companies have the highest CT liability, on average accounting for almost two thirds of total CT Tax liabilities during the period. However, HMRC says the tax liabilities of companies show a highly skewed distribution.

In 2012-13 under 1% of the total liable to pay CT (around 6,300 companies) had liabilities of £500,000 or over, between them contributing around 62% of total CT liability.

Companies with less than £10,000 in CT liabilities made up about 65% of the total number liable to pay CT for 2012-13, and together were subject to around 6% of the total CT liability.