Finance (No. 2) Bill
Debate between George Kerevan and Nigel MillsTuesday 18th April 2017
(7 years, 10 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Finance Act 2017 View all Finance Act 2017 Debates Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Nigel Mills
I absolutely agree: it is important that we continue to send the signal that Britain is a great place to do business and to invest. We want as much international investment here as we can get, so it is absolutely right to have a headline corporation tax rate that is as low as we can have it. I welcome the fact that we are going to get it down to 17%. The previous Chancellor hinted that he might have used 15% to give a sense of direction; perhaps the Government will look into using that in the manifesto we are about to produce.
George Kerevan
Can the hon. Gentleman explain why Germany, which has a much higher headline rate of corporation tax, does so much better industrially?
Nigel Mills
I think I would have had to attend several of the hon. Gentleman’s lectures to understand better how the German economy works, but that is not something I have ever studied. We could probably talk about euro rates and the history of investment in skills and so on, but I suspect it is not all down to corporation tax.
Finance (No. 2) Bill
Debate between George Kerevan and Nigel Mills(8 years, 10 months ago)
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Nigel Mills (Amber Valley) (Con)
I am grateful to be called so early in the debate. I strongly support the Bill, which will encourage saving, reward work, encourage business investment and tackle aggressive tax avoidance. Those things are exactly what we want to see in a Finance Bill and they are all in this one.
Given that, I cannot understand why anyone would choose to vote against the whole Bill. It seems to be largely because of the changes to capital gains tax and corporation tax. I will go back as far as Gordon Brown’s first Budget after becoming Chancellor, in which he effectively introduced a 10% capital gains tax rate and reduced the corporation tax rate. Perhaps we can remember when we had a Labour Government who at least tried, in the early years, to be friendly to business and encourage investment and growth in this country.
George Kerevan
Will the hon. Gentleman explain why the present Chancellor raised capital gains tax to 28%?