Part of Finance Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 2:00 pm on 17 May 2007.
Rob Marris
Labour, Wolverhampton South West
2:00,
17 May 2007
Although there is broad consensus for schedule 6, it seems that we now have three and a half more pages of tax legislation prompted by the fact that some bright sparks have already found a way around the measures that were passed in, I think, schedule 10 to the Finance Act 2006. I pay tribute to their inventiveness, and it is part of the innovation that we salute in this country, in one sense, although I would rather it were channelled into scientific endeavour rather than finding tax loopholes. While the Opposition understandably frequently raise concerns about the length of what they now call the tax code—the number of pages in Tolley’s tax guide and so on—this is a classic example of how, within less than six months of passing fairly lengthy legislation, a loophole is found and we then have to pass another three and a half pages of loophole-closing legislation.
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