VAT: Evasion

Lord Leigh of Hurley Excerpts

Monday 21st December 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ashton of Hyde]

My Lords, in the spending review the Chancellor confirmed that HMRC is making savings of 18% in its own budget through efficiencies. Of course, in this digital age we do not need taxpayers to pay for paper processing or 170 separate tax offices. However, the Government are reinvesting £1.3 billion of their savings in HMRC to transform it into one of the most digitally advanced tax administrations in the world.

[Lord Leigh of Hurley (Con)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a director of a chain of retailers with 200 shops and a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation. The problem is with non-established taxable persons. The solution is either to implement Article 14 properly or to bring in regulation—which we are allowed to do by derogation because it is evasion—and push the problem back to the retailers so that they police the evasion of tax.