Schedule 15 - Charge to income tax on benefits received by former owner of property
Finance Bill
6:45 pm
Ms Dawn Primarolo (Paymaster General, HM Treasury; Bristol South, Labour)
Let us be quite clear. The schedule deals with contrived schemes that are designed to avoid paying any inheritance tax at all. The hon. Gentleman asks me what the route into the conditional exemption is—a route for avoiding paying any inheritance tax at all tax because the property and the chattels are seen as part of the national heritage and inheritance tax is waived under certain conditions. This comes as close as I can think to having one's cake and eating it. He asks whether, if one scheme does not work, people can try another whereby they still do not pay inheritance tax? The answer is no. The schedule is clear.
As the hon. Gentleman well knows, the Inland Revenue does not give pre-clearance, and I did not say that it did. I said that the individual taxpayers could clearly see whether they qualified and what the arrangements are. As to his final point about discussions with the DCMS or the Historic Houses Association, if those discussions are going on I am sure that I will be informed in due course if they impinge on the criteria that we use. I will listen to the case carefully. I still do not see why dealing with contrived schemes puts our historic houses at risk. The case still has not been made. I am therefore not inclined to accept the amendment.