Part of Finance Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 3:45 pm on 13th June 2002.
Amendment No. 98 is designed to extend the relief to land held outside the UK. We cannot see any reason why UK charities should not be able to benefit from non-UK land. It is certainly the sort of matter that is likely to run contrary to European Union principles in the near future. To give a different tax treatment to an asset in one EU state from another may be a problem. Aside from that, what is the logic of excluding non-UK land? The Government seem not to have worried about certain other aspects of their tax legislation dealing with UK assets. We do not envisage any particular valuation problem, because land is an asset that many charities sell if they are given it. What is the difference between land in Kent and land in Calais?