Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
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2019 Loan Charge
Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park Excerpts(5 years, 11 months ago)
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Peter Aldous
I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention—he has a crystal ball, because he has foretold the next item in my speech.
The people affected have become a target. They are vulnerable people. They are not well paid and do not receive many of the benefits and protections that payroll employees do: sick pay, holiday pay and maternity and paternity leave. I would be grateful if my hon. Friend the Minister could advise us when he sums up the debate of whether the impact assessment has looked at the personal circumstances of the individuals who are being pursued, whether they are able to pay and what the impact will be on their lives.
My second point, which my hon. Friend the Member for Hitchin and Harpenden (Bim Afolami) foretold, is that the basis on which the 2019 loan charge has been introduced and many individuals are now being pursued is that it is retrospective. It undermines the cornerstone of taxation, which is that a Government should not seek to impose or increase a tax charge on income earned, gains realised or transactions concluded at a time before the legislation was announced.
Peter Aldous
I sense that I should plough on, Mr Walker, so as to give others an opportunity to make a speech.
It is vital that any taxation system is equitable and progressive, and that those with the broadest shoulders pay their fair share.
Peter Aldous
Then I will allow my hon. Friend the Member for Richmond Park (Zac Goldsmith) to intervene before I continue.
Zac Goldsmith
I thank my hon. Friend for giving way and you, Mr Walker, for intervening in such a magnanimous way.
It is not just right hon. and hon. Members in this Chamber who take the view that my hon. Friend has just expressed in relation to retrospective taxation. The current Chancellor of the Exchequer said in 2005:
“A taxpayer…is entitled to be protected from retrospective or retroactive legislation.”—[Official Report, 7 June 2005; Vol. 434, c. 1139.]
And of course he was right. The measure that we are seeing and debating today is retrospective taxation, and it is abhorrent.
Peter Aldous
I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention: he reinforces what is the fundamental, fatal flaw of this injustice. What I and, I believe, all hon. Members in the Chamber are concerned about is that a group of people—often vulnerable people—who have acted in good faith are now being asked to bear an excessive burden, which will have a devastating impact on their lives and their families’ lives. For that reason, it is very important that we air these concerns to the Minister.