Clause 76 - Duty to deliver land transaction return

Part of Finance Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 3:15 pm on 10 June 2003.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mr Paul Boateng Mr Paul Boateng Chief Secretary, HM Treasury, The Chief Secretary to the Treasury 3:15, 10 June 2003

This is the first clause dealing with the new administrative scheme and enhanced compliance powers. The modernisation of compliance powers is the cornerstone of the modernisation of stamp duty—I stressed the word ''modernisation'' for the benefit of the hon. Member for Tatton. We are bringing up to date antiquated compliance powers that have lingered on well past their sell-by dates. I shall address his charge in more detail in a moment.

The current stamp duty laws do not contain a recognisable compliance system. I shall give some examples of the problem, which I thought that all hon. Members would recognise. There is currently no obligation to submit documents for stamping, and the Inland Revenue has no powers to force taxpayers to do so. The tax is therefore often referred to as being voluntarily, which was a point made in Committee last week. There is no power to assess under-stated duty. Once a document has been stamped, that is the end, no matter what new information comes to light. The hon. Member for Hertford and Stortford cannot seriously be suggesting that that is right. No person is explicitly liable to pay the tax, so if the Inland Revenue had the power to assess, it would have no one to chase for the tax.

Those weaknesses have been known since 1983, but the hon. Member for Tatton suggests that the legislation is the sinister sign of a novel new tax—in 1983, he was probably the chubby-cheeked terror of the first remove. Nevertheless, even in 1983 the then Conservative Government—no doubt he was a juvenile supporter of the Conservative party even at that early age; he has that precocious feel about him—recognised that something was wrong. The hon. Gentleman's predecessors who had responsibility for such matters asked Lord Keith of Kinkel, a well known and respected law lord who, sadly, is now deceased, to look into the matter to see how the enforcement powers of the Revenue in that respect could be improved. The report made a number of clear recommendations regarding stamp duty among which were obligations to bring documents to stamp, improve information powers, modernise appeal procedures and improve penalties. It took a new Labour Government in 2003—some 20 years later—to introduce all those things. There was an intervening period under Conservative Administrations in which absolutely nothing—zilch—was done.