§ Mr. Michael Marshallasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many prosecutions which have been brought for offences concerning VAT irregularities, relate to evasion of payment in each of the following periods: April 1973 to March 1974, April 1974 to March 1975, April 1975 to March 1976 and April 1976 to September 1976.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonIt is not possible, without disproportionate expense, to relate the prosecution to the period in which the evasion occurred since many of the offences cover a number of periods.
§ Mr. Michael Marshallasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many prosecutions which have been brought for offences concerning VAT irregularities, relate to the failure to make returns in each of the following periods: April 1973 to March 1974, April 1974 to March 1975, April 1975 to March 1976 and April 1976 to September 1976.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonRecords are not kept in such a way as to make it possible to relate prosecutions for failure to make returns to the accounting period in respect of which the failure took place.
§ Mr. Michael Marshallasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what percentage of VAT prosecutions for failure to make returns has been successful.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon99.945 per cent. have been successful.
§ Mr. Michael Marshallasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what percentage of VAT prosecutions relating to evasion of payment of VAT has been successful.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonSeventy-three prosecutions have been heard by the courts and the court convicted in 72 cases. The percentage of successful prosecutions is thus 98.6 per cent.
§ Mr. Michael Marshallasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what estimate 331W his Department has made of the amount of VAT that is not collected by traders; and on what basis the estimate is made;
(2) what estimate his Department has made of the VAT allegedly collected by traders but not returned; and on what basis the estimate is made.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonCustoms and Excise conducted in early 1976 an exercise involving special control visits to a representative selection of about 1,100 registered traders in an attempt to assess the extent of under-declarations of VAT. The results of this exercise, adjusted to take account of several factors, especially the amount of tax which is recovered by normal control visits, suggest that the net annual loss to the revenue through under declarations of VAT by registered traders is about £30 million.
No separate estimate has been made of the amount of VAT not collected by registered traders.
§ Mr. Michael Marshallasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the total amount of fines levied on traders in connection with failure to make VAT returns.
Evasion Failure to render returns Other irregularities April 1973-March 1974 … Ordered … … 1 Heard … … Nil Nil April 1974-March 1975 … Ordered … … 22 Heard … … 7 327 April 1975-March 1976 … Ordered … … 73 10 Heard 40 1,424 7 April 1976-September 1976 … Ordered … … 66 3 Heard … … 26 1,691 2
§ Mr. Douglas-Mannasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what effect he estimates that increases in the rate of VAT to 12½ per cent., 15 per cent. and 20 per cent., respectively, would have on the retail price index.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonAbout 2 per cent., 3½ per cent. and 6 per cent., respectively.