The EU published new VAT gap data last week for all 28 member states. The UK summary is here (click the image for a bigger version):   The EU think that in 2012 the UK VAT gap was 10.4% of total potential VAT payable. At 2012 exchange rates the value was £13,428 million (£13.4 billion).
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A comment on this blog has made me look at a key issue for the people of Scotland post independence. This is the impact of VAT on the cost of living in Scotland if there is a Yes vote this week. The summary of the story that follows is that if Scotland votes for independence
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There are occasional moments of pleasure in a campaigners life, not least when your achievements are acknowledged. That is especially sweet when it is your opponents who acknowledge it, as has happened to me in the case of the Isle of Man today: A representative of an organisation that successfully campaigned for the Isle of
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I have already blogged on one response made by HMRC to my new reports on the tax gap as reported in the Guardian this morning. The first response was to my comment on tax abuse by companies. The other response was to my use of VAT gap data to suggest the total value of unrecorded
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The NHS has supposedly had its funding ring-fenced by the government. But we now know that’s not really true. Demand is rising and so are real costs. Effective budgets are falling, as even the IFS has now noted. The choice available is a blunt one because belief in the possibility of massive efficiency gains is
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Rumour reaches me that companies in Gibraltar are now advertising a VAT abuse service almost identical to that closed down by the UK that operated through the Channel Islands in April this year. As I understand it goods are sent from the UK to Gibraltar where they are put in a bonded warehouse and then transferred into Spain. This
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Things seem to have moved on from the Channel Islands’ VAT campaign – and yet it’s important to understand just how it was won – only a month or so ago. For those with interest in the issue – this report and video by Richard Allen is well worth the time.

As the Telegraph reports: The Channel Islands have lost their judicial review against the end of Low Value Consignment Relief (LVCR). The hearing lasted three days in London and critics say the ruling puts thousands of jobs in Jersey and Guernsey at risk. As of April 1, internet mail order goods from the Channel Islands
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So much is going on I am having problems covering it all. So let me just point at this important Guardian story on the ongoing saga of the Channel Islands, vat abuse and H M Revenue & Customs’ incompetence or complicity in the face of it. Even now HMRC seem to be doing their best to lose this case. Thank heavens for Richard Allen
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