(Except clauses 4, 7, 10, 19, 35 and 72) - Clause 26 - Employment income provided through third parties

Part of Finance (No. 3) Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 3:00 pm on 19 May 2011.

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Photo of Ian Murray Ian Murray Labour, Edinburgh South 3:00, 19 May 2011

My hon. Friend really gets to the nub of the Chancellor’s Budget. The Chancellor proclaimed and trumpeted that this would be “a Budget for growth”. He championed in the press a few days before the Budget that it would add “fuel to the economy”. It was probably the only time in the history of the world when a Chancellor has come to any Dispatch Box in any Parliament and championed a Budget for growth that has reduced growth every year; the independent Office  for Budget Responsibility has adapted the growth figures. That is the nub of the point that my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Central made.

Ignorance is no defence in law, but some employees will be trapped by the proposals and will get a bill from HMRC. To go off on a slight tangent for a second, the biggest complaint I get about HMRC is that it is incredibly aggressive in claiming back money and dealing with individuals. As ignorance is no defence in law, employees could be caught in the provisions through ignorance, and HMRC will go after them quite vociferously. Indeed, I had an 82-year-old man at my constituency surgery a few months ago who had received a letter from HMRC saying—I paraphrase—that it would be sending HMRC officers to his house to pin his valuables and assets in order to pay off his debt of £56.73. That debt did not actually exist; it was an administrative error.