Clause 31 - Commencement
Finance Bill
11:00 am
Dawn Primarolo (Paymaster General, HM Treasury; Bristol South, Labour)
It is an intervention to clarify the two points that the hon. Gentleman asked me to clarify. I shall do so briefly by speaking fast.
First, on the arrangements within group and for unwinding, those involved do not have to unwind; they simply have to make a disclaimer. That shows that we, too, recognise the challenges. Secondly, I come back to the fundamental point that I have made all the way through our discussions: where an arrangement involving arbitrage is set up for wholly commercial non-tax purposes, it will not be affected by the legislation.
The Bill is targeted at contrived avoidance schemes, so a balance has to be struck on the start dates and transitional periods. I think that the balance in the clause is fair. When we get to clause 37 and schedule 6, we can come back to that principal point, just to show how difficult it is for any Government, including the present one, to strike that balance.