Finance (No. 3) Bill

Nigel Mills Excerpts

Monday 4th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Nigel Mills (Amber Valley) (Con)]

I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)]

With this it will be convenient to discuss the following:

New clause 14—Group filing for corporation tax—

‘The Chancellor shall direct the Office of Tax Simplification to report by 31 March 2012 on the potential for the introduction of a consolidated corporation tax filing for UK-resident companies meeting the current definition of a group for corporation tax purposes, to include an assessment of the potential cost savings for companies and HMRC, and the potential for reducing tax avoidance.’.

Amendment 15, in clause 4, page 2, line 16, leave out ‘is treated as having come into force on 1 April 2011’ and insert

‘shall come into effect when legislation shall have been enacted requiring that all public limited companies registered in the United Kingdom shall be required to submit the arrangements for the payment of salaries and bonuses of their directors to a binding vote of approval by their shareholders at an Annual General Meeting.’.

Amendment 20, page 2, line 16, leave out ‘is treated as having come into force on 1 April 2011’ and insert

‘shall come into effect when legislation shall have been enacted requiring all public limited companies registered in the United Kingdom to publish the current salaries and bonuses of their directors.’.

Amendment 51, in clause 7, page 4, line 6, at end insert—

‘(10A) The Chancellor shall produce, before 30 August 2011, a report on the Government’s discussions with the industry on the implementation of the increased charge’.

Amendment 17, in clause 42, page 27, line 4, after ‘appoint’, insert

‘after a Report has been submitted to the House of Commons detailing the number of EIS schemes previously approved, their total cost in terms of tax relief, the number of jobs created by the companies enjoying such relief and the number of companies that failed subsequent to relief being granted allowing for an estimate to be made of the cost of each job created under the terms of this scheme when compared to the cost of tax relief given.’.

Amendment 9, in clause 43, page 27, line 35, at end insert—

‘(11A) In section 1052 in subsection (2) after paragraph (a) insert—

“(e) incurred on premises costs

(f) incurred on design costs

(g) incurred on patent, trade mark, registered design, copyright, design right or plant breeder’s right (see section 1139)”.

(11B) After section 1142 add—

“1142A Premises costs

(1) In this part “premises costs” means rents and business rates costs of the studio where R&D is undertaken.

1142B Design costs

‘(1) In this Part “design costs” means—

(a) user interface costs,

(b) user testing costs,

(c) aesthetic costs,

(d) new business model costs.

(2) In subsection (1)(a) “user interface costs” means—

(a) costs occurred from designing the visual and functional appearance of the application,

(b) costs occurred from designing the code that reacts to user inputs.

(3) In subsection (1)(b) “user testing costs” means—

(a) costs occurred during product testing.

(4) In subsection (1)(c) “aesthetic costs” means—

(a) costs occurred from the artistic design of the product.

(5) In subsection (1)(d) “new business model costs” means—

(a) marketing of building a new business monetisation model,

(b) marketing of testing a new business monetisation model.”’.

[Nigel Mills]

The aim of new clauses 12 and 14 is to encourage the Government to move a little faster in simplifying our corporation tax system, which is far too complex to meet modern needs.

On a day on which we have celebrated the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan, it is appropriate to start with a quote from that great tax reformer. He said in 1985:

“Later in this session of Congress, we’ll be presenting our proposals for tax reform that will lower tax rates, broaden the tax base and make the tax code simpler and fairer. We’re looking at a top rate on personal income taxes of 35 percent, very possibly less. And we’ll be sure that incentives for capital formation are maintained. And I just want to reemphasise one thing: Tax reform will not be a tax increase in disguise.”

Those words are as relevant today as they were 26 years ago. To be fair, the Government have received that message. The Exchequer Secretary recently said:

“Taxation in Britain is far too complex. A clearer and more straightforward tax system will bring benefits for tax payers, tax professionals and the Government alike.”

I hope that the whole House would entirely agree with those sentiments.

The Government have taken welcome steps in the right direction. We have established the Office of Tax Simplification, and I commend the work it has done. In fact I am keen to ensure that we get maximum value out of it by giving it a bit more work to do under these two new clauses. At a time when we are assessing the value of all our quangos and outside bodies, the more work we get out of them the better.

We need to hasten the work of the OTS along. We are already a year into this Parliament and we rightly have a process now whereby we consult in detail on major changes to the tax system. If we do not bring forward our proposals in the next year or so, we will struggle to get any benefit from them in this Parliament, and that is the direction in which I am encouraging the Government to go tonight.

The Exchequer Secretary has made such a great start in tax simplification that he has had the honour of being named the tax personality of the year. We could start making various jokes about accountants’ personalities, but we would probably cause grave offence to all my former colleagues, so perhaps we should leave that subject. We have had a consultation on removing a few simple tax allowances, such as the reliefs for angostura bitters and black beer—if going that far gets the Minister that award, just think what garlands could be thrown at his feet if he tackled some of the real complexities of our tax system!

It was just last week that the Government announced the next areas that they want the OTS to consider, rightly including the taxation of pensioners and employment taxes. However, at a time when we need business to drive the growth that will sort out the deficit and our economy, we need to look at the taxes that encourage—or perhaps discourage—business from making the investment that we need. That is why new clause 12 would require the OTS to consider ways to simplify the capital allowance system, or to replace it if simplification is not possible. If the Minister questions why we need that provision, I draw his attention to the Bill, in which we have had to introduce various measures that tinker with the capital allowance system, because we know it is out of date and not working. It is hard to imagine that anyone would design from scratch a system in which we have to introduce a modification to ensure a different system for short-life assets and then we have to change the definition of short-life assets to eight years. I wonder how often businesses invest in assets that they expect to have a useful life of eight years, never mind any longer. That is a clear sign that the system is not working, out of date and far too complex. It needs to change.

I am sure that Members have taken a fascinating look through this country’s tax code and seen how many types of capital allowances we now have. We have a basic regime—the general pool—which from next year will produce an allowance on a reducing balance basis of 18%, meaning that it will take a long time for a business to get the full economic relief for its investment. It would take well in excess of six years to get the majority of that relief. We then have the short-life asset pool for assets that a business thinks might have a life of less than eight years. That effectively means that it has to track those assets and work out when to scrap or dispose of them to get the final balance. We also have a long-life asset regime for assets that have a particularly long life, but which are not suitable for the general pool. Furthermore, we have different rules for cars and environmentally friendly assets, and completely different rules for assets on a finance lease, where effectively we allow account depreciation.

This range of reliefs for simple investments in plant and machinery beggars belief. Frankly, if I was an overseas business or someone with some cash wanting to start a business in the UK, and if I wanted to invest in a heavy manufacturing business, was investing in large numbers of plant and equipment and went to my adviser and said, “I want to invest in the UK. Can you tell me how I get relief for all this investment?” and I got the answer, “Well, it depends on whether it’s a long-life asset, a short-life asset, an ordinary asset, an environmentally friendly asset, and it depends whether you lease it, hire purchase or buy it outright”, I would start to wonder whether it was really worth the effort. Surely there must be a simpler and better way of doing this than having to go down all these different routes.

We know what happens. The system creates complexity for businesses having to track and make all these returns. Then the Revenue has to audit and scrutinise those returns and ensure that everything is done properly. It therefore takes work on both sides to support a system that I suspect is achieving the opposite of what we want, which is to encourage existing and new businesses to invest in new, modern and environmentally friendly equipment, and to create more jobs in the manufacturing sector that we so value in this country.

[Louise Mensch (Corby) (Con)]

My hon. Friend is making a powerful speech, and I share his interest in this subject because, like him, I have large amounts of manufacturing industries in my constituency. Have any businesses in his constituency made representations to him about how much such a measure could save them or help them to invest?

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[Nigel Mills]

I can think of many things on which businesses lobby their MP, but the details of the tax system are a little way down that list. We would find that businesses take a different view of whether they benefit from the current regime. However, as we continually reduce the rate, this will become of greater interest to more and more businesses. Yes, businesses come to me and say, “The general tax system is just far too complex. The corporation tax system as a whole is far too complex.” The issue I have raised is just one particularly good example of where the system is now out of date.

If the Minister needs more encouragement to simplify the system, I would add that the more complex we make a system, the more attractive we make tax avoidance and the more loopholes we create for tax avoidance. Through the Finance Bill we have had to introduce anti-avoidance measures to try to stop people exploiting the system’s complexities. How much more attractive would it be if we simplified the regime either by retaining capital allowances that provide the attraction of a simple fixed rate of relief, or by allowing a business to relieve the depreciation charge it makes in its accounts? In previous debates, we have heard of the risk that businesses could massage their tax results to accelerate the deduction in advance of the economic life of those assets ending. These things can be tackled, however. In effect we are allowing a business with an intangible asset to take relief for its accounts depreciation. It is strange that we allow that for intangible assets that we cannot, by definition, touch and for which there is no scientific data proving the lifespan, yet for tangible assets—the core things we want businesses to invest in—people have to go down this hugely complex route.

In reducing the allowance rate from 20% to 18%, the Government think that they will more closely align rates with the economic life of assets these days. I am not sure that businesses in my constituency are saying that that is their experience. These days, things move on so fast that the life of an asset is quite hard to predict. If someone is looking for a return on an asset over six years-plus, it is hard to be confident in the current market. There are many issues with the capital allowance system, and I suspect that each year a different aspect will become the hot topic. The Minister will be lobbied by different interest groups, as I suspect he was this year in his attempt to move—quite rightly—from four years to eight years, but when he is next lobbied and gets proposals in his Red Box to add another layer of complexity to the system, I hope he will say, “Actually, there must be a better way we can do this.” This is fundamental to our corporate tax system, it is fundamental to how we encourage investment in our country, and there must be a better, simpler, fairer way that removes some of the potential for abuse. New clause 12 would get the Office of Tax Simplification to consider whether a better system could be introduced. I would strongly encourage the Government to consider carefully going down that line.

Let us step back in history to the time of President Reagan. One example of how not to simplify a tax system was his Tax Reform Act of 1986, which introduced what was called the “double-declining balance method”, switching to the straight line method at a time to maximise the depreciation allowance. I raise that issue only to show that this is not as simple as saying that we need either the current system or accounts depreciation—different things could be done that might encourage investment, although I am not sure that the double-declining balance would meet my aim of simplifying, even if it might give businesses the joy of accelerated relief. I shall not ask the Minister to respond in detail on that particular method, however, as I suspect that it will not have featured in his recent studies.

New clause 14 addresses a slightly less hot topic—groups of companies. These can range from groups with two companies through to multinationals with dozens or even hundreds of UK companies. For corporation tax purposes, we currently ask groups to file a tax return for each entity. Then we ask them to file separate claims and elections for all the various inter-group transfers and allocations. They are allowed to transfer a loss from one company against the profit of another, and they are allowed various elections on the transference of assets around the group. All these things create a huge compliance headache for taxpayers and the Revenue.

It is worth considering whether there is a simpler way of getting groups to deal with their corporation tax compliance by filing a tax return covering the whole group. There are precedents: many other tax regimes under our competitors allow groups to file a single tax return for their whole group, and in fact we allow groups to make group VAT elections and effectively file single VAT calculations. I wonder how much easier it would be for a group if it had the same basis for VAT as for corporation tax. Let us consider all the potential savings for businesses and the Revenue in not having to go through dozens of individual tax returns. We should bear in mind the fact that many entities in a group will have few entries and will add very little. Under my proposal, we would no longer require all these group relief returns when businesses allocate losses from one company to another, then make a change following submission and have to change all those returns, after which one company makes a loss the next year that changes the previous year’s return, meaning that they have to re-file them all. All these things add huge complexity and costs but very little value to the tax system.

I accept that they add some value to the Treasury, however, through the hope that, somewhere in a group, some losses or something else will not get relieved but will get trapped, whereas under a simplified system they would get used. I am not sure that our predecessors, when they passed these reliefs to support and encourage business, were aiming to put in place systems so complex and out of date that some relief would get denied when it ought to be given.

There are further reasons behind my proposals. We impose on UK group companies various requirements to review the pricing of transactions that take place between them. There is no tax at stake if company A sells something to company B for £100, then has to work out whether the price ought to have been £95 or £105. The only result is that one entity ends up with a slightly reduced profit, and the other with a slightly higher one. Both pay the same rate of tax, so the present arrangements simply result in a paper chase that creates compliance headaches for business and the Revenue alike. All such transactional requirements between group companies would disappear if they were allowed to file one tax return.

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[Mr David Hanson (Delyn) (Lab)]

I am grateful to the hon. Member for Amber Valley (Nigel Mills) for kicking off this wide-ranging discussion on a number of important tax issues. He certainly enlightened me when he revealed that the Minister is tax personality of the year. I missed that; despite all my “Gauke” Google alerts, I missed the fact that he was tax personality of the year. May I offer the official Opposition’s wholehearted congratulations to him on that?

The hon. Member for Amber Valley gave a number of Ronald Reagan quotes and he said today was the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth. That was on 6 February, in fact, but this is the 100th year since Ronald Reagan’s birth. As you will know, Mr Deputy Speaker, today is the day on which we shrank the UK tax base by giving away America 200-odd years ago, and I hope that, as part of his plans for simplification, the hon. Gentleman will recall that.

New clauses 12 and 14 were proposed by the hon. Gentleman and he may be surprised to learn that I am not averse to his suggestion in new clause 14, because there are grounds for discussing the simplification of UK corporation tax returns for multinationals. It is worth while considering the review that he suggests, provided that it examines whether such a simplification will decrease, rather than increase, tax evasion—an increase is always the worry with such a simplification. New clause 14 potentially has merit and although I do not expect the hon. Gentleman to push it to a vote, I hope that the Minister will consider the issue.

New clause 12 proposes to review, or possibly even remove, capital allowances and asks the Office of Tax Simplification to report on replacing them with a different form of relief. The hon. Member for Amber Valley will know that Labour Members had substantial concerns about reducing capital allowances for firms, which explains why I cannot support the new clause. My hon. Friends and I tabled a number of amendments in Committee to oppose the reduction in the capital allowances. I realise that the reduction was tied up strongly with the decision to cut corporation tax to 24% by 2014-15—shortly thereafter it was decided to cut it to 23%— which was one of the flagship growth measures in the June Budget. However, that was paid for by slashing investment and capital allowances, which encourage businesses to take a long-term view by providing tax relief on the purchase of equipment and machinery. The view that I expressed in Committee has not changed, although I know that it will cause disagreement: companies that invest, particularly in manufacturing—car industries in my own area of north Wales, advanced manufacturing, wind turbine manufacturing, plane makers and so on—will benefit from capital allowances, whereas the tax cuts are, unfortunately, aimed at financial services.

At the time of the June 2010 Budget, manufacturers expressed concern at what this approach will mean for industry. More recently, the engineering manufacturers association warned that the Government risk moving to a tax system that contains “a bias” against big manufacturers. Members on both sides of the House are trying to encourage manufacturing growth, and I believe that the review that the hon. Gentleman seeks in the new clause could be damaging to the growth of capital investment and, therefore, to the growth of manufacturing industry.

[Nigel Mills]

I wish to clarify something. My aim in new clause 12 was not to do what the right hon. Gentleman fears will happen, but to do the opposite. I was aiming to ask the OTS to consider simplifying or replacing the capital allowances regime with one that would match the tax relief more closely to the life of the assets being invested in. My concern was that an 18% reducing balance was giving tax relief over a far longer period than the actual useful life of those assets. I felt that having a simpler system, where a shorter “life” meant that the tax relief would be obtained much faster, would incentivise investment, not discourage it.

[Mr Hanson]

That is an interesting argument, and I bow to the hon. Gentleman’s detailed knowledge of these matters, which goes back to his professional experience before entering the House. My worry has been placed on the record on Second Reading, in Committee and on several other occasions. For the moment, it is best that we keep our arguments to the effectiveness of capital allowances, and I will, thus, still be unable to support the new clause.

My hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) tabled amendments 15, 20 and 17. I suspect that he was even more surprised than me to hear the hon. Member for Wycombe (Steve Baker) offer his unflinching support for my hon. Friend’s suggestions on this matter. I thank him for tabling his amendments because they make an extremely important contribution to the debate. We face a real issue in how we collectively address what is now a cross-party concern and shed light on the remuneration of executives, who are ultimately paid by the companies for which they work and by us as consumers of those goods in our society at large.

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[Mr Gauke]

There have been assessments of the enterprise investment scheme, which has been in place since 1994. We want to encourage greater investment, particularly in smaller companies. We recognise that sometimes there is market failure in that area, which is why tax incentives are justifiable. We have set out as much information as we can, but it is not something on which we can provide precise numbers. That is not the nature of the economy, but the scheme will encourage greater investment and that should be welcomed.

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Amber Valley (Nigel Mills) for his remarks on my award as tax personality of the year. Some may think it a somewhat oxymoronic award, but I can tell the House that it has changed my life considerably.

My hon. Friend brings much greater expertise to these matters than I do. I welcome the fact that he seeks simplicity, which is not always the case with new clauses and amendments to Finance Bills. I want to make a couple of points that relate to both his new clauses.

First, we do not see it as our role to direct the Office of Tax Simplification. The office has done a lot of good work, but it is important that its independence is respected. Secondly, in its broad work the OTS has looked at the various allowances and reliefs in the tax system and has concluded that they are not areas where it wants to devote its efforts. None the less, I know that the OTS will closely read my hon. Friend’s speech. We are always keen to look at areas where we can improve the administration of the tax system, including his proposals in new clause 14 on consolidated filing.

On new clause 12, the OTS has given initial consideration to capital allowances as part of its review of tax reliefs and its ongoing review of small business taxation. The Government have set out their approach to capital allowances in the corporate tax road map. Allowing each business asset to be written off for tax purposes in line with its own depreciation rates would not necessarily bring the benefits to businesses that the new clause anticipates. Some business assets would depreciate more slowly than they currently do under the capital allowances regime, and it should be noted that the annual investment allowance gives immediate write-off for the plant and machinery expenditure of 95% of UK businesses. There is thus a danger that the new clause could increase business tax complexity.

I know that my hon. Friend tabled his new clauses as probing provisions. I may not have entirely satisfied him, but he has put his case on record and the OTS will of course look carefully at what he says.

I turn finally to amendment 51, tabled by my right hon. Friend the Member for Gordon (Malcolm Bruce), who has played a constructive role on the issue in the three months since the Budget announcement on oil and gas. He made an important contribution when the House debated clause 7 in the Committee of the whole House. He has stressed the importance of working closely with the industry in the months ahead, which the Government committed to do at the time of the Budget. We announced then that we would work with the industry in three key areas: setting the right trigger price for the fair fuel stabiliser; looking at whether we can find a way to provide long-term certainty on decommissioning relief; and looking at the case for new categories of field qualifying for the field allowance. I am pleased to tell the House that we are making good progress in these discussions. My hon. Friend the Economic Secretary, who is here this evening, will update the House on progress on those discussions as soon as is appropriate. I hope and expect that she will be able to do so in the very near future. I thank my right hon. Friend for tabling his amendment. Although I have been unable to respond in full detail, I hope that the Government will be in a position to do so shortly.

In conclusion, I remind the House that it is the Government’s aim to create the most competitive corporate tax regime in the G20. We have set out our plans for reform over the next five years in the corporate tax road map, which was published last November. In order to provide businesses with the certainty they need to invest in the UK, tax reforms need to maintain stability, avoid complexity and ensure a level playing field for taxpayers. Therefore, although we have had a good debate, I invite my hon. Friend the Member for Amber Valley to withdraw the motion.

[Nigel Mills]

My purpose in moving the new clause was to encourage the Government down the route of tax simplification, which I hope I have achieved tonight. Therefore, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the motion.

Clause, by leave, withdrawn.

Clause 1

Charge and main rates for 2011-12

[Mr Hanson]

I beg to move amendment 10, page 1, line 9, at end insert—

‘(3) By 31 March 2012 the Office of Budget Responsibility, in consultation with HMRC, will report to Parliament on the revenue of the 50 per cent. rate of income tax and its impact on the UK economy.’.