Schedule 3
Finance Bill
10:30 am
Jane Kennedy (Financial Secretary, HM Treasury; Liverpool, Wavertree, Labour)
Well, here goes! Amendment No. 26 operates on the part of the schedule that determines when entrepreneurs relief is available to trustees. It seeks, in particular, to make it clear that a beneficiary with a defeasible life interest in an interest in possession trust may qualify for relief. I hope that I can demonstrate that the amendment is unnecessary, although I appreciate the spirit in which it has been moved. I am aware of the debate among interested parties about whether a defeasible life interest would be considered an interest for a fixed term and, hence, excluded from the entrepreneurs relief. I assure the Committee that the fact that a defeasible interest may be terminated at some point does not render it an interest for a fixed term. More fundamentally, the amendment does not provide a definition of defeasible life interest, so it would fail to provide the degree of clarification that it may be intended to achieve.
I hope that I have provided the help that the hon. Gentleman was seeking and that, having heard my remarks, he will withdraw his amendment.