§ Mr. James Johnsonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will arrange for closer co-operation between the Departments of Inland Revenue and Her Majesty's Customs and Excise by the exchange of information about the evasion of tax.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonSection 127 of the Finance Act 1972 already provides full statutory authority for the Inland Revenue and the Customs and Excise Departments to supply each other with information to assist in the performance of their duties, but because of undertakings given during the passage of the legislation, exchanges of information have been made only under head office arrangements and not directly between local offices. It seems likely that exchanges between local offices directly, could be of real help in checking tax evasion, and I propose to authorise such an exchange of selected information as an experiment in one selected area for a year, with a view to extending the arrangement generally if the result is worth while. In selecting an area it is desirable to choose a conurbation where the area covered by a VAT office corresponds fairly closely to an area covered by a group of tax districts and with this in mind, Leeds has been selected for this purpose.