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[Varche]

Had to smile when I saw this on BBC teletext today Business news.

"Britain has been losing as much as £1 in every£6 it could be collecting in VAT revenue according to research. The European Commision has been looking at avoidance of VAT across the EU to crack down on fraud.

Analysis commisioned from a London Consultancy found Britain had the biggest shortfall of any EU country.

The government estimates underpayment for 2006 at nearly £13 BILLION while the EU research put it at more than £18billion

 At first I wondered if the consulatancy didn't have enough money to actually leave Briatin to research any other country so just made up some figures.

However as it seems impossible for the ordinary man in the street to avoid paying VAT in Britain then it must be big institutional fraud if the figures are to be believed.

My experience here in Spain is that VAT avoidance is institutionalised in everyone. When you buy something you are given a choice of a receipt which includes VAT or no receipt (but still they honour guarantees) and no VAT and so cheaper. This applies to everything from a packet of screws to a reformed house!

I asked our local builders merchant about it and he apologetically said the only thing he has to charge customers VAT on is concrete beams because the factory charge him VAT. Nothing else has VAT unless you choose to pay the extra. Some people do when they want to be able to offset materials or goods against a tax bill.

So there are billions of euros/pounds being lost every year across the EU on VAT fraud.

Varche

   

[waspy]

So Britain loses billions. If this country was a company, we'd be bankrupt. Oh bugger, we are
Must be time to SACK the company bosses then (did i say bosses, i meant tossers)

[HolyCount]

This is where we are caught between a rock and a hard place .... £billions are lost in unpaid VAT, uncollected Income Tax, uncollected Council Tax etc. etc.

None of us wants to pay any of it, so rarely mourn (and generally applaud) the loss of the officials which the various agencies employ to investigate and collect these monies.

However, what isn't paid by one has to be made up by the others, so the payers end up parting with more than their fair share of the "hard earned".

But, we can't have our cake and eat it .... can we ? 

[Dishevelled Den]

Shows to some extent the bloody mess this country is in

[Lizzie_Zoom]

For centuries the government, or monachy, of the day has lost tax revenues in many various degrees. As HC touches on, it has been a constant battle for the authorities to obtain the revenues expected compared to that the people are prepared to pay!

The simple truth is the country today budgets to spend the amount they know they will gather in taxes, not what could be obtained if everyone was honest!  But for most of us mature enough to have seen human nature in the raw, you know what a utopia that is!!!

There is always going to be a balance to the cost of tracking down all revenue due, and that economically gathered.

For once don't blame the government, blame the dishonest amoungst us, especially the corporate accountants.