Schedule 2 - Employee securities: anti-avoidance
Finance Bill
5:00 pm
Mark Field (Shadow Minister, Treasury; Cities of London and Westminster, Conservative)
It is indeed, however, we need a clear idea of exactly where that line falls. That is the core of the concerns expressed in this group of amendments and others. More clarity is needed. That is the main concern that has been voiced time and again from the various bodies that we have spoken to. The hon. Member for Bristol, West (Stephen Williams) will be happy to know that we have been in touch with a number of professional bodies—and I hope that I will not be speaking entirely verbatim from their notes at a later stage.
There is a great concern about the lack of clarity. Smaller businesses will suffer most from the risk that the measure will be applied in an arbitrary fashion. Large organisations will be in a position to take detailed advice to ensure that whatever programmes they set up are unlikely to fall foul of even the most senior Inland Revenue inspectors. Smaller businesses may find that a relatively innocuous—indeed, uncontrived—scheme falls foul of the regulations.