English: I'm very pleased to move the amendment on behalf of the Plaid Cymru group. I think there's no two ways about it; this is an extremely regressive tax. If you look at the history of it, it goes back to 1601, actually - the introduction of the old Poor Law. Essentially, the problem with it was that, for centuries, of course, it was true that demand for land and property were essentially inelastic, because you didn't have any options. If you wanted to trade, you needed to do so from a physical property. That no longer is the case, of course. Shops increasingly face their biggest competitors from online sales, and indeed even online sales that aren't located in the UK. So, there's a question of geography as well. The reason the tax has survived, of course, is that it is easy to collect. Small businesses tend to pay their taxes. They can't afford the kind of innovative tax evasion techniques that are available to larger corporate businesses and that's why it has remained on the books as a tax, but I think it's high time now that we moved to actually abolish this tax, and replace it with something that is fit for purpose for the twenty-first century. In essence, the problem with the tax, as we heard in some of the contributions, is that it falls disproportionately on those businesses that are least able to pay. If you're a successful and profitable business, as a proportion of your turnover you pay less. It's the marginal business, actually, where we can see a situation where the tax actually tips them over into a loss, and then they have to close. It's the start-up business, which, as we heard, needs that extra support in the initial years, that is disproportionately affected. It makes investment in commercial property unattractive compared to investment in residential property, and that has a deleterious effect, of course, on our town centres. It's a tax that we need to get rid of. That's why we suffer from review fatigue. How many reviews have we had, from this Government, from previous Governments, et cetera? There were about three task and finish groups that I could find reports on, even in the last few years here. Unfortunately, because it's an attractive tax in terms of the Government, because it does provide a stable source of revenue, it's not a case of death by 1,000 cuts; it's life by 1,000 cuts. So, what we've seen is a whole series of reliefs, and we've had a few announced - additional ones, or changes to existing reliefs - by the Chancellor. So, it's kept the tax alive by making a bad tax a little bit better. Actually, what we need is to get on with the longer-tem review and replace this tax. There are interesting proposals - the Mirrlees review; Gerry Holtham has suggested moving towards a form of land value taxation; there's a whole body of literature going back over a 100 years on that. There's an interesting counter proposal on a sales tax, which could actually equalise competition between online retailers and physical retailers. This has happened in the United States of America, where, to help Main Street, they've introduced a local sales tax so that Amazon is at least operating on a level playing field compared with local businesses. It may be that that idea of a local sales tax, freed as we may be, from the perspective of some of our Members opposite, from the shackles of EU law in terms of introducing regional rates and local rates of sales taxation - we have that ability now to look at the prospect of a local sales tax. Wales could innovate. Wales could get rid of this outdated, 400-year old method of business taxation and actually show the rest of the UK what we can do in terms of actually producing a form of business taxation that doesn't punish innovation and enterprise and investment in our town centres, but rewards it instead.
Welsh: Rwy'n falch iawn o gynnig y gwelliant ar ran grŵp Plaid Cymru. Rwy'n meddwl nad oes dwywaith amdani; mae hon yn dreth eithriadol o anflaengar. Os edrychwch ar ei hanes, mae'n mynd yn ôl i 1601, mewn gwirionedd - cyflwyno hen ddeddf y tlodion. Yn y bôn, y broblem gyda hi am ganrifoedd, wrth gwrs, oedd ei bod yn wir fod y galw am dir ac eiddo yn anhyblyg i bob pwrpas am nad oedd gennych unrhyw ddewisiadau. Os oeddech yn awyddus i fasnachu, roedd angen i chi wneud hynny o eiddo ffisegol. Nid yw hynny'n wir bellach, wrth gwrs. Yn gynyddol, mae siopau'n wynebu eu cystadleuwyr mwyaf drwy werthiannau ar-lein, ac yn wir gwerthiannau ar-lein nad ydynt wedi eu lleoli yn y DU hyd yn oed. Felly, mae'n ymwneud â daearyddiaeth yn ogystal. Y rheswm pam y mae'r dreth wedi goroesi, wrth gwrs, yw ei bod yn hawdd i'w chasglu. Mae busnesau bach yn tueddu i dalu eu trethi. Ni allant fforddio'r math o dechnegau osgoi trethi arloesol sydd ar gael i fusnesau corfforaethol mwy o faint a dyna pam ei bod wedi aros ar y llyfrau fel treth, ond rwy'n meddwl ei bod yn hen bryd yn awr i ni weithredu i ddiddymu'r dreth hon mewn gwirionedd, a chael rhywbeth sy'n addas i'r diben yn ei lle ar gyfer yr unfed ganrif ar hugain. Yn ei hanfod, y broblem gyda'r dreth, fel y clywsom mewn rhai o'r cyfraniadau, yw ei bod yn effeithio'n anghymesur ar y busnesau sydd leiaf tebygol o allu talu. Os ydych yn fusnes llwyddiannus a phroffidiol, fel cyfran o'ch trosiant, byddwch yn talu llai. Gyda busnesau ymylol, mewn gwirionedd, gallwn weld sefyllfa lle y mae'r dreth yn eu gwthio i golled, ac yna mae'n rhaid iddynt gau. Fel y clywsom, mae busnesau newydd angen y cymorth ychwanegol hwnnw yn y blynyddoedd cyntaf, a chânt eu heffeithio'n anghymesur. Mae'n gwneud buddsoddi mewn eiddo masnachol yn anatyniadol o gymharu â buddsoddi mewn eiddo preswyl, ac mae hynny'n effeithio'n andwyol, wrth gwrs, ar ganol ein trefi. Mae'n dreth sydd angen i ni gael gwared arni. Dyna pam ein bod wedi blino ar adolygiadau. Faint o adolygiadau a gawsom gan y Llywodraeth hon, gan Lywodraethau blaenorol, ac yn y blaen? Roedd yna oddeutu tri grŵp gorchwyl a gorffen y gallwn ddod o hyd i adroddiadau arnynt, yn yr ychydig flynyddoedd diwethaf hyd yn oed. Yn anffodus, am ei bod yn dreth atyniadol o safbwynt y Llywodraeth, gan ei bod yn darparu ffynhonnell sefydlog o refeniw, nid yw'n achos o farwolaeth drwy fil o doriadau; mae'n fywyd drwy fil o doriadau. Felly, yr hyn rydym wedi ei weld yw cyfres gyfan o ostyngiadau, ac mae ychydig ohonynt wedi'u cyhoeddi - rhai ychwanegol, neu newidiadau i ostyngiadau presennol - gan y Canghellor. Felly, mae wedi cadw'r dreth yn fyw drwy wneud treth wael ychydig yn well. A dweud y gwir, yr hyn rydym ei angen yw bwrw ymlaen â'r adolygiad tymor hirach a disodli'r dreth hon. Mae yna gynigion diddorol - adolygiad Mirrlees; mae Gerry Holtham wedi awgrymu symud tuag at ffurf ar drethiant gwerth tir; mae yna gorff cyfan o lenyddiaeth sy'n mynd yn ôl dros 100 mlynedd ar hynny. Ceir gwrth-gynnig diddorol ar dreth ar werthiannau, a allai gydraddoli'r gystadleuaeth rhwng manwerthwyr ar-lein a manwerthwyr ffisegol mewn gwirionedd. Mae hyn wedi digwydd yn Unol Daleithiau America, lle y maent wedi cyflwyno treth leol ar werthiannau er mwyn helpu Main Street, fel bod Amazon o leiaf yn gweithredu ar sail gyfartal o gymharu â busnesau lleol. Efallai fod y syniad o dreth leol ar werthiannau, a ninnau wedi ein rhyddhau efallai o safbwynt rhai o'n Haelodau gyferbyn, o hualau cyfraith yr UE o ran cyflwyno ardrethi rhanbarthol ac ardrethi lleol o dreth ar werthiannau - mae gennym y gallu yn awr i edrych ar y posibilrwydd o dreth leol ar werthiannau. Gallai Cymru arloesi. Gallai Cymru gael gwared ar y dull hen ffasiwn 400 oed hwn o drethu busnesau a dangos i weddill y DU mewn gwirionedd beth y gallwn ei wneud o ran cynhyrchu math o dreth fusnes nad yw'n cosbi arloesedd a menter a buddsoddi yn ein canol trefi, ond sy'n ei wobrwyo yn lle hynny.