Schedule 33 - Insurance companies
Finance Bill
7:45 pm
Mr Howard Flight (Arundel and South Downs, Conservative)
I have only had the chance to look in insufficient detail at the Government's amendments, some of which will address some of our points. I should be grateful if the Economic Secretary would indicate that when he speaks to the Government amendments.
Several areas of the Bill treat life insurance offices in what I think is viewed as an inequitable manner compared with other trading companies, which will place further financial pressure on an industry with problems. Those areas include the taxation of loan funding, the denial of relief for trading losses and the removal of the trading link to the taxation of receipts in trading computations.
A number of changes have been made to the draft legislation published in January, some of which were welcome, but there remain concerns where it appears that no account has been taken of the consultations and representations that were made. The changes are considerable, and I ask the Economic Secretary why no regulatory impact assessment was carried out to assess the implications of the Bill. An assessment of the impact is clearly necessary, especially given the wide-ranging nature and application of the many provisions. As well as the tax impact, the cost of the IT changes required by the bed-and-breakfasting provision could be significant.