§ Mr. Home Robertsonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much value added tax which has been claimed back from Her Majesty's Customs and Excise by registered traders has been blocked for more than two months as a result of the Civil. Service dispute; how many traders have had their repayments delayed in this way; and whether he will pay interest to those businesses which find themselves making loans to the Treasury in this way for abnormally long periods.
§ Mr. Peter ReesI shall let the hon. Member have a reply as soon as possible.
§ Mr. Stephen Rossasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he will take immediate steps to ensure that no further demands for value added tax are made on small 105W shopkeepers and other retailers until the long overdue repayments from Her Majesty's Customs and Excise have been made;
(2) what is the normal time lag between receipt and refunding of value added tax payments; what is the average time lag at the present time; and what sums are now being held by Her Majesty's Customs and Excise which ought to have been paid out under normal circumstances;
(3) what is the cause of the delay in refunding value added tax payments.
§ Mr. Peter ReesI shall let the hon. Member have a reply as soon as possible.
§ Mr. Gryllsasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will state how much revenue would be lost if he were to raise the value added tax registration threshold from his proposed £15,000 to £50,000.
§ Mr. Peter Rees[pursuant to his reply, 9 April 1981, c. 312]: Raising the registration and deregistration limits for VAT to £50,000 taxable turnover a year would cause such a change in the nature of the tax that it is not possible to make a realistic estimate of the revenue loss.
§ Mr. Gryllsasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much public money would be saved in administration by the Customs and Excise if he were to increase the value added tax registration threshold from £15,000 to £50,000; and how many fewer staff would be required.
§ Mr. Peter Rees[pursuant to his reply, 9 April 1981, c. 312]: It is estimated that some 850,000 traders registered for VAT have an annual turnover of £50,000 or less, and these are approximately 60 per cent. of the total on the register. It is not practicable to predict with any reasonable certainty what proportion would wish to remain registered in order to deduct input tax or for other reasons if the registration threshold were raised to £50,000, and consequently a realistic estimate of staff and financial savings cannot be made.