§ Mr. MadelTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will introduce legislation to provide that, where a company incurs liability for value added tax or deposits taken from customers for goods not yet supplied, value added tax may be collected on a quarterly basis for all the deposits the company has taken, rather than the company being required to raise a second invoice for each customer's job to account for the value added tax; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Lilley[holding answer 20 June 1988]Existing legislation already provides for this where a company supplies goods to customers who are not registered for VAT, since there is no obligation in such cases to issue a tax invoice for either the deposit or the main supply. However, if a tax invoice were not issued to a registered customer in respect of VAT charged on a deposit, the customer would not, in turn, he able to reclaim the VAT.