, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
Sam, did you want to come in on this?
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
Thank you. I'll bring Rhianon in at this point, so if we could unmute Rhianon. Thank you very much.
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
You'll have prompts, I suppose.
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
Just taking that further, how often would you foresee checking the register and updating the register, or would that be at a time of—? I think I'm correct, but please correct me, would there be a nil return every year if you hadn't collected the tax, or would…
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
Thank you.
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
Just on that point, is there a tension, then, between that principle and the way that you work and publishing the register, in that there will be details published on a register that is publicly available? We heard from universities and researchers saying how…
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
Okay, thank you.
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
Just on that compliance aspect, within the legislation that set you up as an organisation, have you got the powers that you need to be able to, as Sam says, go around with a clipboard if you need to, or is there something that needs to be put into this…
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
Okay. It was just interesting to try and understand that. Thank you, Sam.
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
Can I just come in on that scaling up? Was there any consideration given in your discussions with the Government to do a rolling monthly return for people, rather than quarterly or biannually, because that would try and smooth out those peaks and troughs?…
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
Okay, thank you. Sam.
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
Thank you very much. Based on that, before I bring Sam in after this—it’s probably your expertise here, Anthony; it’s more of the cybersecurity aspect—the more people you’ve got accessing data or inputting data, the greater the potential for some…
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
I think we had evidence that said that this might be the fiftieth visitor levy, or in that order anyway. Sorry.
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
Thank you very much. I'll bring Mike Hedges in at this point. If you could unmute Mike for me. Thank you. There we are, Mike.
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
So, filling out the forms, it will be, effectively, prepopulated in very simple terms, because it’s already there.
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
Of course, yes.
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
And finally from me—I’ll bring Mike Hedges in after this—you touched on the fact that this is in two parts. So, you’ve got the levy itself, and then you’ve got the register. And, from the documentation, the indication is that it will be upon yourselves to…
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
The other big client in all of this will be local authorities, the ones that choose to implement the levy. So, how's your communication been with those local authorities regarding the proposals, and what preparations have you started to make with some of…
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
So, with having—. Your main clients currently—and correct me if I'm wrong—are, potentially, solicitors, accountants, that sort of professional body of people. Your clients could be very different and of a much broader scale, and potentially the way that you…
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
You're responsible for LTT and LDT—land transaction tax and landfill disposals tax—and you administer those taxes on behalf of the Welsh Government. What have you been able to learn from those experiences in developing the process to collect and manage the…
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
And in those conversations, have you been able to influence changes to some of the things that would have been problematic for you, but have been changed?
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
Croeso cynnes. A warm welcome to you to this session. We've got a lot of ground to cover, so brevity is the word of the day today, I think. So, I wanted to start by exploring the WRA's functions outlined in the Bill, and I'll bring in Members on that. But I'd…
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
Croeso.
, Finance Committee
Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 4
So, we'll move on, therefore, to our first substantive item of the day. The focus for our day today is the Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Bill. This is evidence session 4, and it's with the Welsh Revenue Authority, and I'd like to…
, Finance Committee
Papers to note
If we move on to item 4. Item 4 is papers to note, and are we okay to note the papers? Yes, I see agreement there.
