Banking: Royal Bank of Scotland

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Tuesday 1st February 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, the tax rules around deferred compensation are complex and depend on the sort of instrument being paid. Some tax on certain instruments is levied up front and some is levied later, so it depends very much on the circumstances of the individual instrument and the taxpayer. But, of course, some tax might indeed be levied later on.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

My Lords, will the Minister confirm that some of these millionaire and billionaire bankers, and indeed other millionaires and billionaires, use tax havens to salt away their money so that they do not actually have to pay tax to the United Kingdom Treasury? What are the Government doing to clamp down on these tax havens?

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, we are doing a lot more than the previous Government ever did. We have set aside an additional £900 million of expenditure for HMRC over the next spending round—the noble Lord may shake his head but that is a fact—and that will result in millions-worth of additional revenue each year being collected compared with what the previous Government did.