Examination of Witnesses (Questions 40
- 44)
TUESDAY 9 JANUARY 2007
MRS SHARON
BOWLES
Q40 Chairman:
That would be wonderful.
Mrs Bowles: I do not get involved in absolutely
everything but even the list of things that I am involved in seems
to be about ten.
Lord Blackwell: Just to add one thing
on the VAT fraud discussion, which is we were talking about the
comparison with the US and the fact that your committee might
look at the way that sales tax works in the US. There is a lot
of VAT fraud which does not fall under this carousel impact, either
black market or not, so when you look at sales tax fraud in the
US I am sure that a lot of that will be simply people supplying
services without—
Chairman: Like builders.
Q41 Lord Blackwell:
Like builders, yes. We need to make sure if we are doing that
it is on a like-for-like basis.
Mrs Bowles: Yes, I agree. Within the ambit of
my report, of course, I think I can deal with that type of fraud
as well because it should be looking wider. Who pays VAT on their
services that they purchase into their house? Because I am a politician
I go out of my way so to do and it makes some of my suppliers
think, "Who is this weirdo?"
Q42 Lord Kerr of Kinlochard:
We need to think about the timing of our report. If you are going
to do both halves of the menu, as you have described it, a first
course of things that perhaps one should be looking to for the
longer term and a short-term fixes bit, you have got quite a big
report there. When do you think it will be completed?
Mrs Bowles: That is my problem and I think I
am only at the stage now of beginning to think about this. I will
probably take views of some of the other people from the committee
as to what we do. Because the Commission is so keen for us to
say something, I think they would like to get something else out
this year which would cut my time down to literally a few months,
in which case I would be saying to them, "Go ahead and bring
out a White Paper on some of these other issues" because
I do not think it is down to me to solve them.
Q43 Lord Kerr of Kinlochard:
I agree.
Mrs Bowles: But they can be given some green
lights to go ahead with the quick fixes and come back with some
more coherent and concrete proposals on some of the long-term
measures. I think I will probably have to end up compromising
a bit like that in order to get it done in a short-ish timeframe.
It would be lovely to say, "Let's spend a year on doing it",
but I will not be given the luxury of that, unfortunately.
Q44 Chairman:
You could at least end up pointing them towards some of the longer
term things, saying, "Here are the quick fixes and the longer
term things".
Mrs Bowles: Saying "Come back with a Green
Paper or a White Paper on some of these issues". I am sure
this is the beginning of that process. Whether they manage to
take it all the way through to a directive, let us say we were
to radically change the system in some way we would have to have
those papers and be looking at it again so I am sure we will be
sitting opposite one another again looking at it.
Chairman: It seems very likely. Thank
you very much for having us.
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