Finance Act 1994
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
Finance Act 1994
1994 CHAPTER 9
An Act to grant certain duties, to alter other duties, and to amend the law relating to the National Debt and the Public Revenue, and to make further provision in connection with Finance.
[3rd May 1994]
Most Gracious Sovereign,
We , Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of the United Kingdom in Parliament assembled, towards raising the necessary supplies to defray Your Majesty's public expenses, and making an addition to the public revenue, have freely and voluntarily resolved to give and grant unto Your Majesty the several duties hereinafter mentioned; and do therefore most humbly beseech Your Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I
Customs and Excise
Chapter I
General
Rates of duty
1 Wine, made-wine and cider.
(1) For the Table of rates of duty in Schedule 1 to the Alcoholic Liquor Duties Act 1979 (wine and made-wine) there shall be substituted the Table in Schedule 1 to this Act.
(2) In section 62(1) of that Act (cider) for ‘22.39’ there shall be substituted ‘22.82’.
(3) This section shall be deemed to have come into force on 1st January 1994.
2 Tobacco products.
(1) For the Table in Schedule 1 to the Tobacco Products Duty Act 1979 there shall be substituted—
‘TABLE
| 1. Cigarettes | An amount equal to 20 per cent. of the retail price plus 52.33 per thousand cigarettes. |
| 2. Cigars | 77.58 per kilogram. |
3. Hand-rolling tobacco |
81.86 per kilogram. |
4. Other smoking tobacco and chewing tobacco |
34.26 per kilogram’. |
(2) This section shall be deemed to have come into force at 6 o'clock in the evening of 30th November 1993.
3 Hydrocarbon oil.
(1) In section 6(1) of the Hydrocarbon Oil Duties Act 1979 for ‘0.3058’ (duty on light oil) and ‘0.2514’ (duty on heavy oil) there shall be substituted ‘0.3314’ and ‘0.2770’ respectively.
(2) In section 11(1) of that Act (rebate on heavy oil) for ‘0.0105’ (fuel oil) and ‘0.0149’ (gas oil) there shall be substituted ‘0.0116’ and ‘0.0164’ respectively.
(3) In section 14(1) of that Act (rebate on light oil for use as furnace fuel) for ‘0.0105’ there shall be substituted ‘0.0116’.
(4) This section shall be deemed to have come into force at 6 o'clock in the evening of 30th November 1993.
4 Vehicles excise duty.
(1) The Vehicles (Excise) Act 1971 shall be amended as follows.
(2) In section 2(1)(b) (six month licences), for ‘35’ there shall be substituted ‘50’.
(3) In Schedule 1 (annual rates of duty on motorcycles), in Part I, paragraph 4(a) (special provision about old motorcycles in Northern Ireland) shall be omitted.
(4) In Schedule 2 (annual rates of duty on hackney carriages)—
(a) in Part I, paragraph 3 (special provision about vehicles used partly for private purposes) and paragraph 5 (special provision for Northern Ireland) shall be omitted; and
(b) in the second column of the first entry in the Table set out in Part II (hackney carriages with seating capacity under nine), for ‘125’ there shall be substituted ‘130’.
(5) In Schedule 4 (annual rates of duty on goods vehicles), in the Table set out in paragraph 4(1) (articulated vehicles), there shall be inserted at the end—
| 38,000 | 44,000 | — | — | — | 2,730 | 2,730 | 1,240 |
(6) In Schedule 4, in paragraph 6 (farmers' goods vehicles and showmen's goods vehicles), sub-paragraph (6)(a), (c) and (d) (exceptional cases where rate is not determined according to sub-paragraphs (3) to (5)) shall be omitted.
(7) In Schedule 5 (annual rates of duty on vehicles not falling within Schedules 1 to 4A), in the second column of paragraph 2 in the Table set out in Part II (vehicles other than those constructed before 1947), for ‘125.00’ there shall be substituted ‘130.00’.
(8) This section shall apply in relation to licences taken out after 30th November 1993.
Other provisions
5 Vehicles excise duty: miscellaneous provisions.
Schedule 2 to this Act (which contains miscellaneous provisions relating to vehicles excise duty) shall have effect.
6 Gaming machine licence duty.
Schedule 3 to this Act (which makes amendments to the Betting and Gaming Duties Act 1981about gaming machine licence duty) shall have effect.
Chapter II
Appeals and Penalties
VAT and duties tribunals
7 VAT and duties tribunals.
(1) As from the coming into force of this section the tribunals for which provision is made by Schedule 8 to the Value Added Tax Act 1983 (value added tax tribunals)—
(a) shall be known as the VAT and duties tribunals; and
(b) shall (in addition to their jurisdiction in relation to matters relating to value added tax) have the jurisdiction in relation to matters relating to customs and excise which is conferred by this Chapter.
(2) Accordingly—
(a) the President of Value Added Tax Tribunals and any Vice-President of Value Added Tax Tribunals shall be known after the coming into force of this section as, respectively, the President of the VAT and Duties Tribunals and a Vice-President of the VAT and Duties Tribunals; and
(b) references in the Value Added Tax Act 1983 or in any other enactment, or in any subordinate legislation, to a value added tax tribunal, to the President of Value Added Tax Tribunals or to a Vice-President of Value Added Tax Tribunals, and any cognate expressions, shall be construed in accordance with subsection (1) and paragraph (a) above.
(3) In the following provisions of this Chapter references to an appeal tribunal are references to a VAT and duties tribunal.
(4) Sections 25 and 29 of the Finance Act 1985 (settling of appeals by agreement and enforcement of decisions of tribunal) shall have effect as if—
(a) the references to section 40 of the Value Added Tax Act 1983 included references to this Chapter; and
(b) references to value added tax included references to any relevant duty.
(5) Without prejudice to the generality of the power conferred by paragraph 9 of Schedule 8 to the Value Added Tax Act 1983 (rules of procedure for tribunals), rules under that paragraph may provide for costs awarded against an appellant on an appeal by virtue of this Chapter to be recoverable, and for any directly applicable Community legislation relating to any relevant duty or any enactment so relating to apply, as if the amount awarded were an amount of duty which the appellant is required to pay.
(6) In Part I of Schedule 1 to the Tribunals and Inquiries Act 1992 (tribunals under direct supervision of Council on Tribunals), for the entry beginning ‘Value added tax’ there shall be substituted the following entry—
| ‘VAT and duties | 44. VAT and duties tribunals for England and Wales and for Northern Ireland, constituted in accordance with Schedule 8 to the Value Added Tax Act 1983 (c. 55).’ |
(7) In Part II of Schedule 1 to that Act of 1992 (tribunals under supervision of Scottish Committee of the Council), for the entry beginning ‘Value added tax’ there shall be substituted the following entry—
| "‘VAT and duties | 63. VAT and duties tribunals for Scotland constituted in accordance with Schedule 8 to the Value Added Tax Act 1983 (c. 55).’ |
Civil penalties
8 Penalty for evasion of excise duty.
(1) Subject to the following provisions of this section, in any case where—
(a) any person engages in any conduct for the purpose of evading any duty of excise, and
(b) his conduct involves dishonesty (whether or not such as to give rise to any criminal liability),
that person shall be liable to a penalty of an amount equal to the amount of duty evaded or, as the case may be, sought to be evaded.
(2) References in this section to a person's evading a duty of excise shall include references to his obtaining or securing, without his being entitled to it—
(a) any repayment, rebate or drawback of duty;
(b) any relief or exemption from or any allowance against duty; or
(c) any deferral or other postponement of his liability to pay any duty or of the discharge by payment of any such liability,
and shall also include references to his evading the cancellation of any entitlement to, or the withdrawal of, any such repayment, rebate, drawback, relief, exemption or allowance.
(3) In relation to any such evasion of duty as is mentioned in subsection (2) above, the reference in subsection (1) above to the amount of duty evaded or sought to be evaded shall be construed as a reference to the amount of the repayment, rebate, drawback, relief, exemption or allowance or, as the case may be, the amount of the payment which, or the liability to make which, is deferred or otherwise postponed.
(4) Where a person is liable to a penalty under this section—
(a) the Commissioners or, on appeal, an appeal tribunal may reduce the penalty to such amount (including nil) as they think proper; and
(b) an appeal tribunal, on an appeal relating...
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