Clause 96 - VAT: museums and galleries
Finance Bill
4:30 pm
Mr Howard Flight (Arundel and South Downs, Conservative)
My question to the Paymaster General is, if section 33 of the Value Added Tax Act 1994 can be extended to museums, why can it not be extended to other charities, or even all charities? When that suggestion has been made in the past, the Government's position has been that article 6 precludes it. Another issue that arises from the legislation is whether the specified museums and galleries will be leaned upon to give up charging, and whether their grant in aid will increase sufficiently to cover the loss from ceasing to charge. Those are not legislative matters but background to the proposed change. Finally, will the Department for Culture, Media and Sport have a role in identifying the museums? It should know more about museums than the Treasury.