Finance Bill — House of Commons, 2016-06-28
Topic: Macroeconomics
David Michael Gauke (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank all right hon. and hon. Members for their contributions in this very good debate. Most of them focused on amendment 1 and new clause 9, as I will, but the hon. Member for Wolverhampton South West (Rob Marris) raised a number of points that I will quickly run through before turning to the main issues On new clause 4, which relates to the review of the GAAR, this is not a deadline issue. I was not making that point, as the hon. Gentleman rightly observed. I would argue that a review of the GAAR is unnecessary. The principal purpose of the GAAR is to deter taxpayers from entering into abusive tax avoidance in the first place. As I have made clear throughout this process, measuring the number of times that the GAAR has been invoked is not a reliable indicator of its success. I made that point when I brought in the legislation relating to the GAAR, and that remains the case On clause 153 and schedule 22 and asset-based penalties, the hon. Gentleman asked how we value the asset. The Valuation Office Agency, which is obviously experienced in that area, will value the asset for HMRC. The date of valuation will be the date of sale. For assets not disposed of, the value will be the market value on the last day of the tax year. That is the standard approach On the number of people affected by clause 147, the measures are aimed at a small but persistent minority of taxpayers who remain undeterred by the Government’s continued strategy to bear down on tax evasion and tax avoidance. We expect that the total number of taxpayers affected by the measures will be a small proportion of the total avoidance population; I do not wish to indicate anything other than that. This is a principled approach and it is right that that shrinking minority is properly dealt with The hon. Gentleman also raised a concern about a double penalty. I hope I can reassure him that the offset provision will apply to ensure that there will be no double penalty apart from the new GAAR penalty, whereby the combined total is capped, in most cases, at 100% We could have a longer debate, as we have done in the past, on the wider, familiar issue of HMRC resources. At the summer Budget, the Government provided HMRC with an extra £800 million to fund additional work to tackle evasion and non-compliance by 2020-21. That will enable HMRC to recover a cumulative £7.2 billion in tax over the next five years by tackling evasion and non-compliance. I also point out, as I tend to do in these circumstances, that HMRC’s yield is at record levels and that the tax gap is at record low levels. Although I do not think that the best measure is the number of staff working in a particular area, it is the case that the number in enforcement and compliance has consistently gone up. I accept that that is not the case across HMRC as a whole, although, as the hon. Gentleman has pointed out, the number is increasing at the moment, including in enforcement and compliance To return to the issue of penalties and whether they are sufficient, the GAAR penalty has been set at a rate high enough to act as a clear deterrent while being proportionate to the behaviour concerned. As I have said, under the existing penalty rules a penalty of 70% to 100% will usually be charged in cases of fraud, and it is appropriate for the GAAR penalty to be below that range. Let me respond to the intervention by the right hon. Member for Barking (Dame Margaret Hodge) about whistleblowing. In October 2015 the Financial Conduct Authority published a package of rules designed to encourage a culture in banks whereby individuals feel able to raise concerns. Those rules require a senior manager to be appointed a whistleblowing champion, internal arrangements to handle all types of disclosure, and a requirement to inform the FCA if an employment tribunal with a whistleblower is lost Given that I have responded to one point raised by the right hon. Lady, I will now address some of her other points about new clause 9, which seeks to provide more information about the tax gap numbers. My argument is the practical point of whether it is likely that HMRC could estimate or measure the impact of such a specific measure on the tax gap, particularly given that the basis is hypothetical, since the register of persons with significant control is not yet operational. That is, therefore, a challenge, but I accept that the new clause also enables us to have a wider debate about the Crown dependencies and overseas territories. That is an important issue and I want to focus more on it We have made extraordinary progress in the past six years with regard to Crown dependencies and overseas territories and, indeed, more widely. When I first took over this role some six years ago, the big campaigning issue for many outside organisations was automatic exchange of information. My predecessor, the right hon. Member for East Ham (Stephen Timms), is held in very high regard by Members on both sides of the House. He was a dedicated Financial Secretary and tax Minister who energetically pursued that agenda, but I can remember him saying in 2010, "That’s very much what we want to do, but we think it’s a long way away." The progress that has been made over the past six years, for various reasons, is considerable. The automatic exchange of information, which was once seen as a laudable objective but not something we were going to reach any time soon, has now been reached. It applies to Crown dependencies and overseas territories, which were all early signatories to the common reporting standard, and that is now coming into force. It is fair to say that the UK Government encouraged them to do that, and that is an example of how working in partnership with the Crown dependencies and overseas territories can result in quicker and more effective implementation, whereas imposing legislation reduces that co-operation and can ultimately harm our ability to tackle and deter corruption, tax avoidance and tax evasion. The approach we have taken over the past six years has been successful in making substantial progress, which people of good will on all sides did not think would be possible. The common reporting standard is a good example of that Although I accept that Crown dependencies and overseas territories have not signed up to public registers of beneficial ownership, we have to put the issue in context. The UK is pretty much the only jurisdiction that has done that. Of course we should expect Crown dependencies and overseas territories to meet international standards. As a Government, we continue to press the case for ever higher international standards, but failing to have a public register of beneficial ownership is not a breach of international standards. We would like the international standards to be such, but they are not at present. We have to consider the issue in that context. I do not want to rerun everything I said earlier about amendment 1. I believe that we all share the same objectives and that the question is about how we get to where we want to be. I want to make it absolutely clear that, although there are some technical concerns and flaws in the legislation, the fundamental point is that there is a limit to the extent that we can require a foreign multinational entity to disclose information on its global activities under UK law. That is why we believe that the best way forward is through international efforts on public country-by-country reporting. Even if those flaws can be addressed, we still face that problem.