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Finance (No 2) Bill 2005 is published

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6th Apr 2005
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Houses of ParliamentThe Finance (No 2) Bill 2005 is now available on the Parliamentary website.

Explanatory notes to the Bill, which has 106 clauses and 11 schedules, are available on the Treasury website.

The Inland Revenue has provided links to the Bill and related documents on the Revenue website.

All stages of the Bill are to be considered by the House of Commons today, 6 April and by the House of Lords on 7 April.

Earlier today a Commons statement of the order of business for 6 April listed the Budget resolutions to be retained and enacted before Parliament is dissolved to make way for the general election.

CIOT's Finance Bill representations
The Chartered Institute of Taxation published on 5 April its representations on the Finance Bill as published on 24 March.

The Institute said it is "unfortunate that a Bill of 341 pages is published on Maundy Thursday, with a general election almost certainly scheduled for 5 May".

Expanding on its response published on 31 March to the Budget proposals, the CIOT said: "Either most of the Bill will be deleted, or the provisions will not receive even the limited scrutiny that they would normally receive."

The CIOT's initial concerns included:

  • Lump sums from state pension: "The rate of tax chargeable on such lump sums may be higher than is stated in the Explanatory Notes".
  • Tax charge on other chargeable benefits from securities: "The changes to be made to [section 447(4) ITEPA 2003] to allow double taxation run completely contrary to [the Government's stated policy]."
  • Proposed new legislation on arbitrage: "In effect, we will have a series of mini-GAARs with no corresponding clearance mechanisms."
  • SDLT avoidance disclosure: "It is considered unsatisfactory that the Revenue do not propose to state whether a reported scheme is to be registered, and will not be issuing reference numbers."
  • SDLT Disadvantaged areas relief: "We are shocked at the short duration of this relief."
  • International: "Our impression is that the Revenue are taking on the role of policing other tax systems as well as the UK's".
  • Private equity funding: "[Proposals are] likely to have an adverse effect on the attraction of the UK as a place to site private equity houses to the benefit of our European competitors."
  • Dividends taxed as interest: "In our view, such a fundamental change, and such complex legislation, require proper consultation."

Andrew Goodall
Editor, TaxZone

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