Clause 13 - Relief from income tax and capital gains tax
Child Trust Funds Bill
9:30 am
Mr David Laws (Yeovil, Liberal Democrat)
The issue in the amendment is how the Government treat upper-income groups in respect of the child trust fund. At the end of last week's proceedings, we referred to exchanges on the issue in the Treasury Committee and to the Treasury's Mr. Holgate. He admitted that, in the Treasury's view, the assumptions that had been made about the tax cost of setting aside income tax settlements legislation were quite arbitrary. My hon. Friend the Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb) pressed Mr. Holgate further about the assumptions and asked him whether he could share them with the Committee. Mr Holgate replied:
''To offer you something would be to pretend to have a degree of wisdom on this subject which nobody possesses.''
That raises the question whether the Minister's estimate of a cost of up to £10 million per year for laying aside the tax legislation is reasonable.