Finance (No. 3) Bill (First sitting)

Clive Lewis Excerpts

Tuesday 27th November 2018 Public Bill Committees

The current guidance on the GAAR published by HMRC makes it clear that corporation tax is under its purview. The question then is whether that principle can be strengthened or more regularly applied to prevent abuse of our own taxation rules. We must look at what the general anti-avoidance rule is itself, particularly the section on HMRC’s application of it, which is the scope of the amendment we have tabled. I will spare the Committee any more substantive detail on what that section refers to. I think people will—

[Clive Lewis (Norwich South) (Lab)]

Thank you for that.

[Peter Dowd]

People will thank me for it—I am sure that is the case—but I exhort people to read that detail, which will give them an insight into a way forward.

The question that a review would fundamentally seek to ask is whether the section of the GAAR that I referred to but will not quote from is strong enough in providing HMRC tax officials with the basis for pursuing corporation tax avoidance. The review would also look at its relationship to the other sections of the guidance in meeting that aim.

A related matter is whether the hollowing out of HMRC has had an impact on its effectiveness in preventing avoidance and evasion, and we cannot ignore that. My constituency, as you are well aware, Ms Dorries, is home to a significant number of HMRC staff, and they have been impacted, as everywhere has, by the Government’s hollowing out of HMRC. This matter should be considered as part of the review proposed by our amendment. The effective resourcing of HMRC needs to be reviewed as well.