The National Audit Office (NAO) has produced a report on the efforts made by Customs to improve the results of VAT control visits. The report considers all businesses except those visited under the Large Trader Control régime, which was the subject of a separate NAO report in 1997.
The report is largely complimentary in its conclusions on the efforts made by Customs. A study undertaken in 1994/95 indicated that resources could be better targeted on non-compliant traders, so that larger amounts of revenue were recovered as a result of visits. As a result, pilot studies were undertaken and procedures were adopted so that all cases were subject to an initial ‘sift’ by a specialist team as part of the process of choosing which businesses should be visited.
