Schedule 4
Finance Bill
4:53 pm
David Gauke (Shadow Minister, Treasury; South West Hertfordshire, Conservative)
Thank you, Mr. Cook, I shall refrain from using this as an opportunity to publicise our policy of increasing the inheritance tax threshold to £1 million. The amendment is about the nature of the retrospective element of the penalties that may apply to a personal representative, because of the circumstances that I have outlined. The Law Society raised that concern, and it is a reasonable point. As I stressed, the provision does not seek to condone a mis-statement in any way, but because of events, whether in Blackpool or in the House of Commons, a personal representative may suddenly find himself in a different position from that which applied when he made the mis-statement. The amendment would ensure that the change in any penalties for which he is liable would come into effect only when the Bill became law. It would not be backdated to some point in the past at which the personal representative would not have been aware of what was to happen in the future.