VAT Fraud and the Poll Tax

That the Parliament notes that Eurocanet estimates that the UK Exchequer was defrauded of £8.4 billion in VAT payments last year; is concerned that HM Revenue and Customs has only 1,400 staff working to identify and eliminate VAT fraud whilst thousands of local government staff and sheriff officers are still engaged in trying to collect £437 million in outstanding poll tax debts; believes that this represents a misuse of resources in that such debts are unlikely to be recovered 16 years after the poll tax was abolished, and therefore calls on the Scottish Executive to cancel all outstanding poll tax debts and to work with the UK Government to increase the staff resources allocated to VAT fraud elimination.