Alun Cairns
Main Page: Alun Cairns (Conservative - Vale of Glamorgan)Department Debates - View all Alun Cairns's debates with the HM Treasury
Tax Avoidance (Public Servants)
Alun Cairns Excerpts(12 years, 10 months ago)
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Danny Alexander
As was revealed on “Newsnight”, and as I have said, a number of Departments were involved in this—the Cabinet Office, and so on. What I am trying to do now, through the review that I have put in place, is to ensure that these arrangements are not repeated in the future, and that any existing arrangements approved by this Government or the previous one are dealt with.
Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)
Is not the root of this issue based in the complex tax structure that has grown up over the past 15 years or so? What reassurance can the Chief Secretary to the Treasury give the House that such issues will be rooted out during the tax simplification review?
Danny Alexander
My hon. Friend makes an important point. It is precisely the complexity of the tax system that creates some of the opportunities of which many people take advantage. That is why we have created the Office of Tax Simplification, which continually makes recommendations for ways in which we could simplify the tax system and tackle some of the avoidance schemes. The very complicated tax arrangements that we inherited are gradually being changed by this process, which is in the best interests of the country.