Value Added Tax Act 1983

6 (1) Tax due from any person shall be recoverable as a debt due to the Crown.

(2) Where an invoice shows a supply of goods or services as taking place with tax chargeable on it, there shall be recoverable from the person who issued the invoice an amount equal to that which is shown on the invoice as tax or, if the tax is not separately shown, to so much of the total amount shown as payable as is to be taken as representing tax on the supply.

(3) Sub-paragraph (2) above applies whether or not—

(a) the invoice is a tax invoice issued in pursuance of paragraph 2(1) above; or

(b) the supply shown on the invoice actually takes or has taken place, or the amount shown as tax, or any amount of tax, is or was chargeable on the supply ; or

(c) the person issuing the invoice is a taxable person;

and any sum recoverable from a person under the sub-paragraph shall, if it is in any case tax, be recoverable as such and shall otherwise be recoverable as a debt due to the Crown.

(4) The Commissioners may by regulations make provision—

(a) in respect of England and Wales and Northern Ireland for authorising distress to be levied on the goods and chattels of any person refusing or neglecting to pay any tax due from him or any amount recoverable as if it were tax due from him and for the disposal of any goods or chattels on which distress is levied in pursuance of the regulations ; and

(b) in respect of Scotland for authorising the poinding of the corporeal moveables of any person refusing or neglecting to pay any tax due from him or any amount recoverable as if it were tax due from him and for the disposal of any moveables which are poinded in pursuance of the regulations.