§ Mr. Robert BanksTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the outcome of the pilot study of joint pay-as-you-earn and value added tax visits which the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise undertook in the Nottingham area.
§ Mr. Norman LamontThe pilot study, which took place in the last quarter of 1986, was designed to test the Keith committee's suggestion that joint visits, rather than separate visits for PAYE and VAT purposes, could be mutually beneficial to traders and to the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise.
The findings are that, while joint visits are feasible and acceptable to most of the traders who received them, in only 2 per cent, of cases would a joint visit replace two separate visits. So, in most instances, a joint visit would add to, rather than reduce, the inspections of a business's records. Furthermore, a system of joint visits would add substantially to the departments' costs.
In the light of these results, it is not proposed to implement a programme of joint visits at this stage. But both departments will continue to improve the information and other services they provide, especially to small businesses.