§ Mr. Lawsonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to paragraph 2 of Her Majesty's explanatory memorandum on the European Communities document COM (78)531, which would be the yield from the United Kingdom of a 1 per cent. rate of value added tax, taking the latest year for which estimated figures are available (a) directly on the basis of taxpayers' information on the taxable base as returned to the United Kingdom tax administration and (b) on the basis of the total actual value added tax revenue and an estimated average value added tax rate from which is calculated an estimated taxable basis.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 7 February 1979], gave the following information:
The two methods should produce similar results. Taxpayers have not been required to return the information to make a calculation on basis (a). On basis (b) the yield of a 1 per cent. rate of VAT in 1976 has been estimated to be somewhere about £750 million.