Clause 149 - Non-resident companies: assessment,
Finance Bill
4:30 pm
Mr Stephen O'Brien (Eddisbury, Conservative)
It is of great relief to find that I am not alone in finding some of the issues before us very complex, because it is clear that other Committee members do as well. The issues reward a certain amount of study, to say the least. There was a moment, shortly after we resumed, when I hoped that the Paymaster General would make very few remarks, because, at that point, we might have been able to prevail in the vote, but, unfortunately, she had to continue, and I dare say that that was not 100 miles from her mind at the time.
That said, we move to clause 149. As I mentioned earlier, clause 148 was dealt with in Committee of the whole House ably and cogently by my hon. Friend the Member for Arundel and South Downs. Clause 149(1) will make the UK representative of a non-resident company that is trading in the UK through a permanent establishment—that is the UK representative—liable for non-resident companies corporation tax. When the UK representative is a separate person—that is an agent rather than a branch of the company—it is appropriate that he should have right of recovery or retention in respect of the corporation tax liability. Subsection 3A in amendment No. 95 would address that point.