Clause 35 - Exercise of options etc
Finance Bill
12:00 pm
Richard Spring (Shadow Minister, Treasury; West Suffolk, Conservative)
As we heard from the Minister, the provisions are anti-avoidance in nature and block a loophole caused by amending legislation passed in the Finance Act 2003. My hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge was right to raise his point, and I hope that the Minister was correct in his assertion.
The blocking mechanisms are fairly well targeted, if not extremely lengthy and comprehensive, to say the least. We are willing to accept them, but with a qualification about competence. Why are the Government having to amend something passed as recently as 2003? Is it because they introduced a tax avoidance structure rather than closed one down? This is all part of the culture of hideous micro-management, which is a characteristic of the taxation legislation of the Government.