Mr. Howellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what consultations have been held with the Sports Council and the Central Council for Physical Recreation about the proposal to extend value added tax to entrance fees of all sports competitions; and what advice was received from these bodies;
(2) why it has been decided to extend the application of value added tax to entries of sports competitions; what estimate he has made of the adverse effect this will have upon such sports so far as young people and the young unemployed are concerned; and if he will list, sport by sport, and for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, respectively, the income he expects to receive from this proposal;
(3) what consultations have been held with the Scottish Sports Council about the proposal to extend value added tax to the entrance fees for sporting events;
(4) what consultations have been held with the Northern Ireland Sports Council about the proposal to extend value added tax to the entrance fees for sporting events;
(5) what consultations have been held with the Welsh Sports Council about the proposal to extend value added tax to the entrance fees for sporting events;
(6) if he will list, region by region, the effect upon sport which the regional sports councils calculate will be the result of the proposed new imposition of value added tax upon entry to sports competitions; and what advice has been received from each of them; (7) what is his estimate of the effect which the proposal to extend value added tax to the entrance fees for sporting events in Scotland will have on the promotion of such events, especially where they cater for young people and the young unemployed;
(8) what is his estimate of the effect which the proposal to extend value added tax to the entrance fees for sporting 167W events in Wales will have on the promotion of such events, especially where they cater for young people and the young unemployed.
§ Mr. Peter Rees[pursuant to his reply, 6 November 1980, c. 653–54]: There is no proposal as such. What has happened is that from their experience in administering the tax in individual cases, the Commissioners of Customs and Excise came to the conclusion that their original view, taken immediately before VAT was introduced, that entry fees to competitions were outside the scope of the tax was wrong in law. The independent VAT tribunals confirmed this conclusion in two recent decisions on appeals by sporting clubs. Thus these fees should in general properly have attracted VAT since its inception in 1973. As it is the statutory duty of the commissioners to administer the tax in accordance with the law, it would not be appropriate for its implementation to be the subject of prior
RPI: PERCENTAGE INCREASE Over 1 month Over 3 months Over 6 months Over 12 months 1978— October … … … 0.4 1.5 3.3 7.8 November … … 0.7 1.6 3.5 8.1 December … … 0.8 2.0 3.5 8.4 1979— January … … … 1.5 3.0 4.6 9.3 February … … 0.8 3.2 4.8 9.6 March … … … 0.8 3.1 5.2 9.8 April … … … 1.7 3.4 6.5 10.1 May … … … 0.8 3.4 6.6 10.3 June … … … 1.7 4.3 7.5 11.4 July … … … 4.3 7.0 10.6 15.6 August … … … 0.8 6.9 10.5 15.8 September … … 1.0 6.2 10.7 16.5 October … … … 1.0 2.8 10.0 17.2 November … … 0.9 2.9 10.1 17.4 December … … 0.7 2.7 9.0 17.2 1980— January … … … 2.5 4.1 7.1 18.4 February … … 1.4 4.7 7.8 19.1 March … … … 1.4 5.3 8.1 19.8 April … … … 3.4 6.3 10.7 21.8 May … … … 0.9 5.8 10.7 21.9 June … … … 0.9 5.4 11.0 21.0 July … … … 0.8 2.7 9.2 16.9 August … … … 0.2 2.0 7.9 16.3 September … … 0.6 1.7 7.1 15.9