§ Mr. Lesterasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the practical difficulties which he has identified as being involved with the possible raising of the value added tax threshold.
§ Mr. HayhoeThe major obstacle to any significant increase in the VAT registration threshold is the EC sixth VAT directive, which restricts increases in the threshold to those which maintain its value in real terms. The increase to £19,500 announced in this year's Budget was the maximum permissible within that restriction.