Lord Watts
Main Page: Lord Watts (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Watts's debates with the HM Treasury
(2 weeks, 6 days ago)
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Lord Livermore (Lab)
I reassure the noble Lord that I absolutely understand that. I recently answered a Written Question on this exact point, so I am more than happy to share with the noble Lord the Answer to that Question.
Lord Watts (Lab)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that everyone who pays PAYE has to pay their fair share of tax, but an awful lot of people do not pay their fair share of tax? Is not the use of technology one way in which we can make sure that they make their contribution?
Lord Livermore (Lab)
My noble friend makes an important point; the tax gap is a significant issue. Small businesses account for some 60% of that tax gap, much of which comes from unintended errors. One of the big advantages of Making Tax Digital is having more frequent reporting, and therefore there are far fewer errors. There is also the pre-population of end-of-year tax returns, which again reduces errors. If we can reduce some of those errors, we can reduce quite a significant part of the tax gap.