Extract from Oral answer
(Lords) on VAT: Evasion
(Con): My Lords, that
is a very welcome reply—albeit that it has been a very long time
coming. For several years now, the Inland Revenue has known that
it is losing £1.5 billion in VAT, and that we are losing £6
billion a year in economic activity, but has done nothing, so I
am delighted to hear that things are changing. Will my noble
friend please make sure that the Chancellor emphasises to HMRC
that fairness is important, and that having teams of heavies go
round to UK taxpayers and then do nothing about enormous abuse by
Amazon and its serfs really gets people’s goats, does not make
people love the taxation system and does not make them like the
Government, either?
The Minister of State, Department for International
Development (Lord Bates) (Con): First, I pay tribute to
my noble friend for being a consistent campaigner on this issue,
which has brought about significant change. We introduced the
change where there is joint and several liability. The problem
here is that non-EU importers are bringing in goods to the UK at
wholesale prices, storing them here, selling them on at retail
prices and not paying the VAT, thereby undercutting small
businesses. We responded to that by introducing joint and several
liability for online providers. That has meant that the number of
non-EU traders registered in the UK has gone up from 700 to
17,500 just over the past two years—so we believe that we are
making progress, but there is a lot more to do and we have
further ideas in that area.
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Extracts from
Westminster Hall debate on the TV Licence Fee
Mr (East Londonderry)
(DUP):...I join other hon. Members in thanking the hon.
Member for Warrington North (Helen Jones) for introducing the
debate. I declare a somewhat different interest, which is that I
have been trying to hold the BBC to account for many years. I
have had some limited success in recent years, but initially I
struggled to get it to be more accountable and transparent.
Several hon. Members have alluded to the Culture, Media and Sport
Committee’s February 2015 report, the tail end of which stated
that
“we do not see a long-term future for the licence fee in its
current form.”
That was almost three years ago, but given the transformational
changes since then because of Netflix and Amazon,
for example, we are now even closer to the point that the report
predicted.
To paraphrase what someone said 70 or 80 years ago, an
independent, impartial, fully accountable public service
broadcaster sounds like a very good idea. Could we have one,
please? I am afraid I disagree with much that has been said
today. Some £3.8 billion of public finances go into the BBC,
which produces some very good programmes and some that are not so
good. Unlike the hon. Member for Kilmarnock and Loudoun (Alan
Brown), I have a licence fee, but I pay it very reluctantly, for
reasons I will come to in a moment. I do not have a choice; even
if I want to watch the BBC only occasionally or very rarely, I
still have to pay.
The licence fee is a regressive tax, as the hon. Member for
Warrington North said. The £3.8 billion arises from an
out-of-date funding process that is fast becoming a redundant
exercise. Over the past 10 years the number of viewers who watch
via delayed broadcasting has risen from 2% to 14%; with other
providers such as Netflix and Amazon transforming viewing habits, I do
not know where we will be in 10 years’ time...
(Folkestone and Hythe)
(Con):...There is some BBC content that has gone off the
iPlayer because the original transmission was too long ago, but
that can be watched through paying a subscription to Netflix or
Amazon Prime, or through going out and buying a DVD. The
principle that older content from the back catalogue that is not
being broadcast must be paid for has always been there. In a new
technological age, should there not be a “BBC Plus” subscription
service that allows someone to buy that content directly from the
BBC, as they would a DVD, rather than via an intermediary such as
Netflix?
To read the whole debate, CLICK
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