New tax checks on licence renewal applications.
Who is likely to be affected ?
Individuals, partnerships (including limited liability partnerships (LLPs)) and companies applying for licences in England and Wales to either drive taxis or private hire vehicles (PHVs), or both, operate a PHV business or deal in scrap metal.
The measure also affects licensing bodies in England and Wales that administer those licence applications.
General description of the measure
Conditionality will introduce a check on tax registration (tax check) for renewed applications in England and Wales for licences to:
Drive taxis and PHVs (for example, minicabs)
Operate a PHV business
Carry on the business of a scrap metal dealer on a site
Carry on business as a mobile collector of scrap metal
An applicant who wishes to renew a licence will need to carry out a tax check. The licensing body (typically a local authority) will have to obtain confirmation from HMRC that the applicant has completed the check before being able to consider their renewed licence application.
Policy objective:
The hidden economy consists of individuals and businesses with sources of taxable income that are entirely hidden from HMRC. This deprives the government of funding for vital public services. The hidden economy tax gap (the difference between the amount of tax that should, in theory, be collected by HMRC, and what is actually collected) is estimated to be £2.6 billion for 2018 to 2019.
The hidden economy also distorts competition and is linked to wider rule breaking and criminality, including money laundering, health and safety violations, failure to comply with employment rights and immigration offences. HMRC is committed to levelling the playing field for legitimate businesses and has a continuing programme of operational work to tackle the hidden economy.
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LAST WEEK IN PARLIAMENT
Daniel Zeichner Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There are over 360,000 licensed taxi and private hire drivers in England, and the sector has been very hard hit. What assessment has the Secretary of State made of the impact on the sector, and will he tell us how he plans to measure the impact of his rather disappointingly weak statutory guidance issued back in July?
(Citation: HC Deb, 17 September 2020, c480)
Grant Shapps The Secretary of State for Transport
The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right about the impact, and the same is true of many other forms of transport. I pay tribute to the work of taxi drivers and private hire vehicle drivers, who have been incredible during this crisis and have often provided the only form of transport available for people in certain areas.
The statutory taxi and private hire vehicle standards have considerable teeth, because for the first time ever we will have national databases, and we will put enormous work into ensuring that all local authorities and hackney carriage authorities sign up to those and use them. I will say more in the not too distant future about our support for taxis and private hire vehicles through the pandemic.
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Police investigating the shooting of three men in a Coventry street want to trace a taxi seen in the area at the time.
Extensive trawls of CCTV footage showed the silver Peugeot Tepee in Far Gosford Street at about 22:00 BST on Thursday, West Midlands Police said.
Officers believe the taxi driver could have valuable information.
The victims were less seriously injured than initially thought and one remains in hospital in a stable condition.
Detectives have described the shooting as an act of "outrageous violence" and want anyone with information to contact them.
"We are continuing with increased patrols and we have a dispersal order in place in the area," Det Insp Kat Sibley said.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-54224680
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