Draft Double Taxation Relief and International Tax Enforcement (Brazil) Order 2023 Draft Double Taxation Relief and International Tax Enforcement (San Marino) Order 2023

Marco Longhi Excerpts

Tuesday 27th June 2023 General Committees

[Marco Longhi (Dudley North) (Con)]

It is a pleasure and an honour to be able to speak in this Committee, so I thank the Minister and colleagues for indulging me. The Brazil double taxation agreement was in fact signed by the UK and Brazil last year, following years of negotiations between HMRC and its Brazilian counterparts to iron out, as the Committee may imagine, many a detail. It is a fact that trade flows between countries improve GDPs and the health and wellbeing of populations, who benefit through extra jobs and job security.

The process now requires ratification by our own Parliament, which is why we are here, and the Brazilian Senate. I am personally assured by the President of the Brazilian Congress that, once he receives submission from the Federal Revenue of Brazil, he will progress it through their chamber expeditiously.

The absence of a double taxation agreement is the single biggest market access barrier preventing businesses from investing in both our countries, as we have heard. Brazil, as we have also heard, is the only G20 country with which we do not have a double taxation agreement, and we have well over 100 such agreements in place. I ask the Committee to please support the Brazil order and, indeed, the San Marino order.