§ 11. Mr. Tim Smithasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will seek to set up a Royal Commission on taxation or a similar comprehensive review having as its overall objective the reduction and simplification of tax legislation.
§ Mr. MooreAs my hon. Friend is aware, our manifesto showed our concern to simplify taxes. I will bear in mind my hon. Friend's suggestion.
§ Mr. SmithIf my suggestion is not acceptable, may I ask how my hon. Friend hopes to make progress on this important subject? Does he agree that the extraordinary proliferation of tax legislation and its increased complexity puts enormous compliance costs on industry and commerce?
§ Mr. MooreI agree, and, after three weeks in the Treasury, am passionately interested in simplifying taxes and reducing tax legislation. My hon. Friend's objective is sometimes confounded by the reality of the pressures applied by people for specific reliefs. That only adds to the complexity.
§ Mr. John EvansIs the Minister aware that the recently introduced duty on bingo is proving a bureaucratic nightmare to the secretaries and treasurers of working men's clubs who cannot understand what they are supposed to be imposing? Will he consider scrapping it and introducing a flat rate annual licence fee instead?
§ Mr. MooreHaving expressed sympathy for simplification and reduction of legislation I can do no other than examine the issue.
§ Mr. RipponFar from undertaking to consider the suggestion of my hon. Friend the Member for Beaconsfield (Mr. Smith), would it not be better to give a firm assurance that no such Royal Commission will be set up in any circumstances, as their usual effect is to kick the ball into the long grass from which it emerges muddier than ever before? Would it not be better for the Government simply to get on with the job?
§ Mr. MooreBearing in mind my right hon. and learned Friend's considerable experience, I shall be much more conscious of his advice in future than, perhaps, that of some of my officials.
§ Sir Anthony GrantIs my hon. Friend aware that, without all the mumbo-jumbo and panoply of a Royal Commission, one of the most useful tax reforms that was undertaken by the Government just before the general election campaign was to put private firms on the same basis as those in the public sector for VAT in National Health Service flotations? Why has the Chancellor ratted on that undertaking in the Finance Bill?
§ Mr. MooreThere is no question of ratting on commitments. The Government have a limited period in which to consider the current Finance Bill, so they are limited in the welcome measures that they would have wished to consider now.