Clause 60
Finance Bill
12:30 pm
Stephen Timms (Financial Secretary, HM Treasury; East Ham, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman is right that those tests are appropriate in a range of circumstances, but they are not appropriate in the case under discussion because the purpose of the clause is to make things absolutely clear. To apply a test in this case would add uncertainty, which the clause exists to remove. To add an avoidance purpose test risks undermining the clause’s aim of ensuring that the point is unarguable.