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Britain's
most efficient office in Wolverhampton still takes 32 days
to process applications.
With
the small and medium-sized business arena reeling from
corporation tax hikes in the last Budget and the abolition
of taper relief in the pre-Budget report, news of
additional problems are set to fan the flames further.
"If
the Government wants to get more people to start
businesses, it must make sure VAT registration is quick
and simple," said a spokesman for the Federation of
Small Businesses. "Long delays are not acceptable for
any reason when the future of new businesses is at
stake."
Tory
Treasury spokesman David Gauke said: "This is an
ongoing problem which we have been warning about for well
over a year. In that time, performance has continued to
decline and, at one point this year, HMRC had practically
ceased to process any VAT applications in a reasonable
time. In addition to a rising regulatory burden and rising
taxes, businesses are having to cope with government
departments failing to provide an acceptable
service."
A
spokesman for HMRC said: "With increased incidents of
carousel fraud [a type of VAT crime], the number of checks
that have to be performed has increased. We saw a spike in
applications because of Budget changes to so-called
managed service companies, while there have been a number
of efficiency savings cutting the processing offices from
four to two. It hasn't reduced overall staff levels, but
some people have had to be retrained."
Source
:
Independent
- London, England, UK, dated 28/10/2007
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