§ Mr. McFallTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the total amount of revenue lost as a result of tax avoidance has been in each financial year since 1997, broken down by(a) VAT, (b) corporate taxation and (c) personal taxation. [161857]
§ John HealeyIn "Protecting Indirect Tax Revenues", published alongside the 2003 Pre-Budget report, a copy of which is available in the Library, HM Customs and Excise published a broad estimate of the scale of VAT avoidance as part of its wider historic estimates of revenue losses arising from VAT avoidance, fraud and non-compliance over the last decade. Because of the inherently more difficult exercise of estimating revenue losses from non-consumption taxes, it has not yet been possible to produce an accurate estimate of the losses arising from avoidance of corporate or personal taxation.
§ Mr. McFallTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which companies are known to be selling or to have sold versions of the gilts scheme used to reduce income tax bills; how many individuals and companies are known to be using or to have used the scheme; and how much revenue is involved in each case. [161861]
§ Dawn PrimaroloThis was a highly abusive tax avoidance scheme involving the deliberate generation of losses on the purchase and re-sale of Government gilt strips for the purpose of reducing income tax bills, which the Inland Revenue quickly identified and acted against. However, at this stage it is not possible with complete accuracy to identify all those who sold the scheme, the numbers of individuals and companies who used the scheme or the value of revenue involved.