National Insurance Contributions (Termination Awards and Sporting Testimonials) Bill (First sitting)

Mike Wood Excerpts

Tuesday 14th May 2019 Public Bill Committees

[The Chair]

Good morning to those who have just joined us. We now resume our public sitting and hear evidence from the Treasury. Before I call the first Member, I remind all Members and witnesses that questions and answers should be limited to matters within the scope of the Bill. Please also recognise that we must stick to the timings in the programme order that the Committee has agreed.

The scope of the Bill is quite narrow. Essentially, the Bill introduces a new class 1A national insurance contribution on termination awards in excess of £30,000, and a new class 1A national insurance contribution on sporting testimonial payments over £100,000. Could Members and witnesses try to keep their comments focused on the scope of the Bill, which is not about general reform of national insurance?

Do any members of the Committee wish to declare any interests before we proceed?

[Mike Wood (Dudley South) (Con)]

I declare an interest as vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on football.

[The Chair]

Thank you. The understudy will now hand over to the Chairman.

[Siobhain McDonagh in the Chair]

--- Later in debate ---

[Kirsty Blackman]

You did; it is true. It does not happen often, though.

Robert Jenrick: The established process is that we review pieces of new legislation within three to five years. As this is a Treasury Bill, we will write to the Treasury Committee within three to five years, setting out our intention to review the Bill and the outcome of our work.

Raj Nayyar: If we have not already done so. Sometimes HMRC will already have commissioned research on how a policy has worked out, and we can then just explain that that has happened and the impact of it.

Robert Jenrick: The £200 million is for termination payments. As for sporting testimonials, we believe that this measure will raise a very small amount of money. Our motivation is to ensure clarity by placing the tax situation on the statute book, and to ensure fairness between sportspeople who have testimonials, rather than to raise significant sums of money. The OBR has certified that the effect is negligible, which means less than £3 million, but it could be significantly less than £3 million.

[Mike Wood]

Q A lot of sporting testimonials at all levels are used to raise money for charities and good causes, with either all or some of the proceeds going to local or national charities. How do you expect these measures to impact on charitable giving through sporting testimonials?

Robert Jenrick: That is a good question. We do not think it will have a material impact. If you are a sportsperson who wants to give all or part of your testimonial receipts to charity, there are two options available to you. First, you could use our very generous system of payroll giving, which is without limit. Your employer, which in this case may well be the sporting testimonial committee, could register for that and take advantage of it. If you had not done that, and the receipts came to you as an individual, you could choose to make a donation and use gift aid at a later date, and take advantage of what by international standards is a very generous relief. We do not think there will be an impact on the receipts that charities receive from some of these testimonials.

[Mike Wood]

I apologise, Ms McDonagh, but in my earlier declaration, I should have drawn the Committee’s attention to the part of my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests about hospitality from the Football Association.

[The Chair]

I guess there might be a lot of people in that position.