Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of re-introducing tax-free shopping for international visitors on retail businesses.

The government published its next steps on tax-free shopping in the Spring Budget 2024 which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spring-budget-2024/spring-budget-2024-html.

The OBR published a review of the original 2020 costing of the withdrawal of tax-free shopping in the Economic and Fiscal Outlook on 6 March, with a follow up supplementary document published on 11 March, which is available here: https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/VAT-RES-costing-review.pdf.

The government welcomes further submissions in response to the OBR’s findings.