A tax return is a form on which a person or organization presents an account of income and circumstances, used by the tax authorities to determine liability for tax.
Tax returns are usually processed by each country's tax authority, known as a revenue service, such as the Internal Revenue Service in the United States, the State Taxation Administration in China, and HM Revenue and Customs in the United Kingdom.
The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation tax, petroleum revenue tax and stamp duty. More recently, the Inland Revenue also administered the Tax Credits schemes, whereby monies, such as Working Tax Credit (WTC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC), are paid by the government into a recipient's bank account or as part of their wages. The Inland Revenue was also responsible for the payment of child benefit (from 1999).
The Inland Revenue was merged with HM Customs and Excise to form HM Revenue and Customs which came into existence on 18 April 2005. The current name was promoted by the use of the expression "from Revenue and Customs" in a series of annual radio, and to a lesser extent, television public information broadcasts in the 2000s and 2010s.
Working Tax Credit (WTC) was a state benefit in the United Kingdom made to people who worked and received a low income. It was introduced in April 2003 and was a means-tested benefit. Despite the name, the payment was not a tax credit linked to a person's tax bill, but a payment used to top-up low wages. The amount of WTC received could exceed the amount of tax paid. Unlike most other benefits, WTC was paid by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
WTC could be claimed by working individuals, childless couples and working families with dependent children. In addition, some other people were also entitled to Child Tax Credit (CTC) if they were responsible for any children. WTC and CTC were assessed jointly and families remained eligible for CTC even if no adult was working or they had too much income to receive WTC.