Clause 24
Finance (No. 2) Bill
10:45 am
Julia Goldsworthy (Shadow Chief Secretary To the Treasury, Treasury; Falmouth and Camborne, Liberal Democrat)
The Financial Secretary talked about competitiveness. Although corporation tax rates have fallen in recent years and have remained unchanged since 1999, they have been falling in other developed countries. I should therefore be interested to know what investigation his Department has carried out into whether the United Kingdom looks set to remain an attractive place for investment compared with other countries. I want also want to know his future projections for revenues from the tax since, in 2004-05, the UK revenues from corporation tax, excluding North sea oil, represented 2.6 per cent. of the total tax take. Including North sea oil revenues, the figure is 3.3 per cent., which is very high for countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. I shall be interested to know what future implications he thinks that that will have for competitiveness. Are the taxes are being relied on more heavily because of the commitment not to increase income taxes?