Draft Double Taxation Relief and International Tax Enforcement (Belarus) (Revocation) Order 2025 Draft Double Taxation Relief (Russian Federation) (Revocation) Order 2025

Gareth Davies Excerpts

Tuesday 4th March 2025 General Committees

[Gareth Davies (Grantham and Bourne) (Con)]

It is a great pleasure to see you in the Chair, Dr Huq. It is also a great pleasure to see the Minister. It has been so long since we last saw each other—it must be at least two hours.

I am grateful to the Minister for laying these statutory instruments, which will revoke the double taxation conventions with Belarus and Russia. Russia fell out of compliance with all material provisions of its convention with the UK in August 2023, with Belarus following in March 2024. The UK did not immediately accept the suspensions and urged both countries to reverse their decisions and return to compliance with the conventions. However, given Russia and Belarus’s persistent refusal to comply with their international obligations, the UK has now rightly taken the decision to revoke both the 2018 and 1994 orders.

I am pleased to say that His Majesty’s Opposition support these statutory instruments, which are a proportionate and sensible step given Russia and Belarus’s continuing breach of their international obligations. Of course, the measures build on steps taken by the previous Government in response to the invasion of Ukraine and the non-compliance with international obligations. For example, back in March 2022, we suspended co-operation with Russia and Belarus on exchanging and sharing tax information.

We support today’s measures, but I end by asking for one small point of clarification. The conventions state that signatories must give six months’ notice to terminate the agreement. Has the UK provided that notice, or did Russia’s unilateral suspension of the convention mean that such notice was no longer required?