Finance (No. 2) Bill

Justin Tomlinson Excerpts

Monday 15th April 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gauke]

I shall certainly take that intervention as lobbying in support of the proposal. The hon. Gentleman is right to highlight our super-connected cities policy, which is further modernising our economy and further benefiting a number of cities. I appreciate the case he makes for Swansea, and I am sure that it will be properly considered.

[Justin Tomlinson (North Swindon) (Con)]

The tax breaks for the video games industry are a fantastic opportunity to create swathes of new jobs, but it is essential that the Minister continues to apply pressure to address the shortage of computer programming graduates or we shall miss out on a fantastic announcement.

[Mr Gauke]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for putting that point on the record. He will be aware of the efforts made by the Government to strengthen our capacity in that respect, and I am sure his remarks will be noted carefully by my ministerial colleagues in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

I turn to tax avoidance and evasion. Although we believe in a competitive tax landscape, we are not by any means a soft touch on tax. As a Government, we have made very clear our expectations of businesses. We expect businesses to pay tax in accordance with the law, but we also want to ensure that aggressive, artificial tax avoidance is dealt with, which brings me to the second key theme of the Bill.

The vast majority of individuals and businesses pay their fair share of tax, but the Bill takes determined action against those who choose not to do so, by introducing a further package of measures to tackle tax avoidance.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Gauke]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that helpful point.

Turning to the wider issue of fairness, in addition to the steps that we have taken on avoidance and evasion, the Bill builds on previous coalition policy by ensuring that individuals and businesses will make a fair contribution, while the Government continue to support those on the lowest incomes. We continue to reward work and help hard-working families with the cost of living, and the Bill therefore increases the income tax personal allowance to £9,440 from this month. That represents the biggest ever cash increase, and the Chancellor has announced that the threshold will rise again, to £10,000, from next year.

[Justin Tomlinson]

This announcement is extremely welcome, but most people simply do not know how much the changes will help them. Does the Minister agree that any changes, good or bad, should be displayed on payslips, in the same spirit that changes in council tax or business rates are displayed in the annual bill?

[Mr Gauke]

My hon. Friend makes an interesting point. He will be aware of the steps that the Government have taken to introduce personal tax statements that will make the tax system much more transparent. It will be clearer to people how much tax they are paying, and how that money is being spent. We believe that those are helpful steps, and those tax statements can demonstrate the way in which we have made great progress in increasing the personal allowance.