Schedule 6 - Accounting practice and related matters
Finance Bill
12:00 pm
Philip Hammond (Shadow Chief Secretary To the Treasury, Treasury; Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
The amendments would confirm explicitly that the accounts referred to in the schedule must be prepared under United Kingdom generally accepted accounting practice. That would ensure that the schedule operates as intended and that the operation of section 836A of the Taxes Act 1988 and section 50 of the Finance Act 2004 is imported into the paragraph. In respect of the application of accounting standards to securitisation companies, it is important that regard be had to section 83(1) of the Finance Act 2005 for the provision to work properly.
The Paymaster General wants to prevent leakage of tax from the system. I am sure that her officials are aware that people in the big, wide world who specialise in such matters are already looking at using companies when local company law requires them to use particular accounting treatments that give a result, which is convenient to them from a tax point of view. It is considered appropriate therefore for there to be an explicit reference to the accounts being prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting procedure.