Nicholas Soames: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the loss of revenue to the Exchequer as a consequence of NATO's tax-exempt status. [181022]

Hugh Robertson, Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Department for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

No assessment has been made of the loss of revenue to the Exchequer as a consequence of NATO's tax-exempt status. This could only be done at disproportionate cost. NATO do not have a centralised accounting system nor a central computerised search facility. Collating a reply would require coordinating inputs from around 40 NATO structures, located across all 28 NATO members states and tracking records back to 1957. Pre 1997 records are on paper files.

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