Mr. Sebastian Barnes:

Those kinds of mechanisms are important levers and while some are enforcement issues, others are related to the design of the tax system.

Something like the tax commission can, hopefully, be very helpful in pointing those out. I do not know how much money is available but it makes sense to look at that. It is important for the sustainability of the tax system that it is seen as fair and efficient, so those are definitely areas to consider.

I sound a note of caution in that Governments often look at reducing waste or improving enforcement as ways of filling gaps in their budgets. Those are areas an organisation such as ours looks at very seriously now. In the past, the way in which estimates of how much additional revenue such an approach would bring in have been accurate. People who look at public finances generally examine these carefully because they can seem like an easy way out for the Government. The Deputy is right, however, that they may well be totally appropriate in the circumstances.