Effect of increase in the VAT registration thresholds

VAT has not been dining at the captain’s table on the luxury cruise liner for many years as far as the chancellor’s Spring Budgets are concerned. Important announcements about the nation’s favourite tax have been as absent as a lottery winner in a discount store.

In my view the reason that VAT has only picked up the scraps at the pauper’s table is simple: despite the fact that 12 years have passed since George Osborne’s infamous ‘pasty tax’ budget in 2012 – when 20p tax on a pasty created a national crisis – the memories of that disaster occasion are still clear in the minds of politicians: leave VAT well alone!

The only important change in the recent Budget – aside from the announcements about future consultations which leave me as bored as a seaside ice cream seller on a rainy day – was the increase in the...