§ Sir Fergus Montgomeryasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what consultations took place with the mail order industry before the consultation paper, "VAT: Small Business Review" was published.
§ Mr. Brooke[pursuant to his reply, 9 February 1987; c. 37]: None, but officials of Her Majesty's Customs and Excise have met representatives of the industry to discuss their response to the consultation paper.
§ Sir Fergus Montgomeryasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what compliance cost assessment of the costs and benefits to the mail order industry of the changes proposed in the consultation paper, "VAT: Small Business Review" was carried out by Her Majesty's Customs and Excise in accordance with the provision of paragraph 3.12 of "Building Businesses … Not Barriers" (Cmnd. 9794) and if he will publish the findings.
§ Mr. Brooke[pursuant to his reply, 9 February 1987, c. 37]: The compliance costs of those few proposals which may result in additional costs for certain classes of businesses are being taken into account together with the revenue and other possible benefits, in the consideration which the Government is giving to the responses to the consultation document proposals. No formal assessment will be completed until the Government have announced their decisions.
§ Sir Fergus Montgomeryasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the benefits to the United Kingdom economy as a whole of implementing the changes outlined in the consultation paper, "VAT: Small Business Review" in respect of the mail order industry.
§ Mr. Brooke[pursuant to his reply, 9 February 1987, c. 37]: This is receiving further examination in the light of the responses to the consultation paper proposals.
§ Sir Fergus Montgomeryasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment has been made by Her Majesty's Customs and Excise of the cost to retail traders providing self-financed credit facilities of compliance with the proposed new requirements in the consultation paper, "VAT: Small Business Review".
§ Mr. Brooke[pursuant to his reply, 9 February 1987, c. 37]: Representations received from retail traders 424W providing self-financed credit facilities suggest that, if the proposal to abolish the standard method of reckoning gross takings for users of the VAT special retail schemes were to be implemented, revenue could be in excess of £25 million a year.
§ Sir Fergus Montgomeryasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment has been made by Her Majesty's Customs and Excise of the cost to retail business of compliance with the proposed new requirements in the consultation paper, "VAT: Small Business Review".
§ Mr. Brooke[pursuant to his reply, 9 February 1987, c. 37]: The consultation paper proposals are mostly beneficial to small retail businesses. I regret that there is no reliable basis for forecasting accurately the value of these benefits.
§ Sir Fergus Montgomeryasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many representations were received from (a) business organisations and (b) individuals, regarding the present value added tax regulations for mail order firms in each of the years 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1986.
§ Mr. Brooke[pursuant to his reply, 9 February 1987, c. 37]: There are no VAT regulations relating specifically to mail order firms. The only recent representations have been those at the end of 1986 in the context of the consultation document "VAT: Small Business Review" and special schemes for retailers.