(Except Clauses 1, 4, 5, 9, 14, 22, 42, 56, 57, 124, 130 to 135, 138, 139, 148 and 184 and Schedules 5, 6, 19 and 25, and any new Clauses and Schedules tabled by Friday 9th May 2003 relating to excise duty on spirits or RÿD tax credits for oil exploration.) - Schedule 22 - Employee securities and options
Finance Bill
2:45 pm
Mr John Baron (Billericay, Conservative)
I, too, want to express some concern about the schedule in relation to the tax law rewrite project, but first, I wish to point out that parts of the schedule are welcome, particularly the changes to the amount of tax payable when shares are converted or are no longer subject to a risk of forfeiture and so on.
However, I share with the hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr. Laws) and my hon. Friend the Member for Arundel and South Downs (Mr. Flight) the concern that schedule 22 was introduced with hardly any warning and with inadequate explanation in the Budget day press release. More than 70 pages of
legislation will completely rewrite rules that have been developed over some 10 to 15 years, and it is a shame that extensive tranches of the newly rewritten legislation that had been drafted in the tax law rewrite style, which we fully support, in the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 that came into effect on 6 April is to be replaced with this Bill's bland drafting, most of which is not in the new style, which may cause problems. Will the Paymaster General confirm what action she will take to put that right, if she can?
Amendment No. 105 is a particularly important amendment because it asks whether venture capital partnership funds are outside the scope of the Bill. If the amendment does not find some favour with the Government, I would reinforce the point made by my hon. Friend that some ministerial statement should be made to clarify whether the terms of the joint Inland Revenue-BVCA letter will continue to apply. I look forward to hearing the Paymaster General's comments.