"I have one quick thought—I am trying to be helpful. In every year there is inevitably a Finance Bill. This is a Treasury matter and could therefore be covered in the new Session by the Finance Bill...." Simon Hughes - View Speech
"The Minister is being very helpful. In answer to an earlier question, he alluded to the timetable that has started. Would it be reasonable to assume that the negotiations are intended to be concluded by the MOD during this financial year at the latest?..." Simon Hughes - View Speech
"Let me say to my hon. Friend and to those on the Treasury Bench that his announcement about a general anti-tax avoidance provision is hugely welcome, particularly in London, where people have seen companies get away with not paying taxes for many years—something that no previous Government have adequately dealt …..." Simon Hughes - View Speech
"I apologise for missing the first few sentences of my hon. Friend’s speech, but he knows that I am very much with him in this campaign. Has he thought of using his website to encourage shareholders of each of the top companies to raise the issue at their annual meetings …..." Simon Hughes - View Speech
"I have great respect for the right hon. Gentleman, who has been consistent in pursuing the issue, but his last criticism is completely ill-founded. I do not speak as somebody who backed the previous Tory Governments or the previous Labour Governments when they failed to deal with the issue for …..." Simon Hughes - View Speech
"This has been a really good debate. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Redcar (Ian Swales) for going to the Backbench Business Committee and persuading it, with the support of some of us, that this is a debate we ought to have. We are on the …..." Simon Hughes - View Speech
As well as tax treatment of interest payments being an unfair incentive to avoid paying due taxes, shareholder loans are a particularly iniquitous example of these practices. That is my second and subsidiary point. Where owners of a company are receiving interest payments, they can …..." Simon Hughes - View Speech
"I wish to speak briefly to amendment 12 and new clause 3, which are both in my name. Both relate to the reports that the Government propose in clause 3 should be annually produced, and to the transparency of the companies involved in this support for infrastructure, which I welcome.
The other really important thing—this is the purpose of new clause 3—is that we should require due diligence to be carried out in the same way as we require it for money-laundering prevention. The trouble is that it is not …..." Simon Hughes - View Speech