Finance Bill

I support the powerful case made by my hon. Friend the Member for South-West Hertfordshire (Mr. Gauke) for new clause 4, particularly on the repayment of VAT. Some 1.8 million businesses are VAT- registered, and they submit 7.6 million assessments each year. In the year ending March 2006, 85 per cent. of those assessments were paid on time, which means that a substantial number were not. The new clause would assist the Revenue in sharpening up its act, and would both help it to catch up with those who have not paid their VAT bill on time and ease the burden on businesses that have not received their repayments on time. In the absence of such a provision, the Revenue has paid insufficient attention to the efficiency improvements that are needed following its combination with Customs and Excise. The Revenue is quick to fine businesses that do not submit their returns on time. Indeed, if a business is two weeks or more late in filing its return, a default fine is automatically imposed. In the year ending March 2006—the latest year for which figures are available—the Revenue issued 250,000 late filing penalties, which is an increase of 10,000 on the previous year. The total value of VAT-related penalties earned by the Revenue that year was £270 million. That is a significant source of tax revenue, which HMRC could clearly increase, given the proportion of fines that have not been paid. However, there is an imbalance, as HMRC’s performance in refunding overpayment is not subject to anything like such rapid equivalency. Indeed, businesses can apply for compensation only once an inquiry launched by HMRC into VAT irregularities is completed. As we heard from several hon. Members in Committee, that may take a very long time indeed, even for businesses that trade legitimately and supply the information requested by HMRC. They do not receive such payments as a result of HMRC’s inefficiencies. I am dealing with a constituency case that involves a company whose VAT payment for March 2006 is under investigation. It was not notified of the investigation until six and a half months later, in mid-October. An overpayment had been made, so the Revenue may have suspected MTIC fraud—indeed, it transpires that that was the case—and it launched an inquiry. Fourteen months later, the company is still waiting for the inquiry to conclude. There is a catalogue of errors in HMRC’s systems, with which I will not bore the House—but to illustrate the challenges facing companies I should explain that that business, having failed to receive a refund of the significant overpayments in its March return and its subsequent May return, received a demand from the Revenue regarding the non-payment of corporation tax. The Revenue decided to pursue the company through the courts for the tax, which amounted to roughly 20 per cent. of the VAT overpayment due to the company. The company got into cash flow difficulties as a result of the Revenue retaining its funding, and business more or less ceased. It was only as a result of my intervention with Mr. Gray at HMRC that the Revenue backed down from its demand for corporation tax and stopped pursuing the company into liquidation through the courts. Fourteen months later, however, despite repeated correspondence with Mr. Gray on the company’s behalf, there is no resolution in sight. If the Government accepted the new clause, the Revenue would be obliged to report regularly on its performance, so it would have a salutary effect both on the way in which HMRC chases up people who default on payments and on cases in which overpayments have not been refunded. As a final illustration, may I rehearse for the House a point that I made in Committee about online filing and HMRC’s woeful performance in meeting its own targets? By March of this financial year, HMRC aims to achieve a target of 50 per cent. of VAT returns filed online. As of March—the end of the last financial year—only 9 per cent. of returns were filed online. The new clause would encourage substantially greater efficiencies in HMRC, so it should be supported.