The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr David Gauke)
The Government have consulted on a number of tax policies following announcement at summer Budget and previously. Today, the Government are publishing responses to these consultations alongside draft legislation to be included in Finance Bill 2016. This fulfils our objective to consult, where possible, on draft clauses for the Finance Bill, at least three months in advance of the introduction of the Bill.
The Government are publishing draft legislation on policies announced at autumn statement 2015 and earlier, including:
A new personal savings allowance to remove tax on up to £1,000 of savings income for basic rate taxpayers and up to £500 for higher rate taxpayers;
Reforms to dividend taxation by replacing the dividend tax credit with a tax-free dividend allowance of £5,000 and setting new dividends tax rates;
Establishing the office of tax simplification on a statutory basis;
A new tax relief for orchestras at a rate of 25% on qualifying expenditure.
New measures for those who persistently enter into tax avoidance schemes that are defeated by HMRC, such as a special reporting requirement and a surcharge on those whose latest return is inaccurate due to use of a defeated scheme;
A new penalty of 60% tax due to be charged in all cases successfully tackled by the general anti-abuse rule.
Detail of the clauses published today can be found in the overview of legislation in draft, which includes tax information and impact notes for each measure. All publications will be available online at: https://www.gov.uk.
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