Corporation Tax Bill

I am grateful for that guidance, Madam Deputy Speaker. I certainly shall not pursue the issue of corporation tax rates, but clearly the intention behind the Bill is to improve the clarity of corporation tax law. That is an important element in improving—or trying to improve—the competitiveness of the UK tax system. Our argument is that we should go further and that simplification would do much to improve our competitiveness. The process that we have seen in the tax law rewrite project is a valuable guide to how we could go further. I shall not dwell on our proposal for an office of tax simplification, which would make use, as this project has, of the expertise in the tax professions, in businesses, in HMRC and in HM Treasury to ensure that we develop our tax law in an attractive way. It is worth stressing that we live in a very competitive world. The UK, in many respects, should be well placed to benefit from a globalised world, but it needs a competitive tax system. May I briefly highlight the fact that in 1997 the UK was fourth in the World Economic Forum's global competitiveness report's ranking for having the lowest tax burden? According to a measurement that is not exactly the same but is the closest equivalent, it is now ranked 84th for the extent and effect of taxation. That is a substantial decline, not because of the tax rewrite project but despite it, of course. None the less, we need to go much further. We believe that an office of tax simplification would be a huge step forward. Let me raise another query with which the Minister might be familiar, as he briefly touched on it in his remarks. The argument was often made that making legislation clearer in the context of income tax was very important. Income tax is relevant to nearly all of us, whereas companies tend to be advised on corporation tax. It is an area that inevitably involves some specialist expertise. Is it quite as necessary to pursue a rewrite project in that context? Of course, the first point to make—the Minister touched on this—is that there is an interrelationship between income tax and corporation tax, and having reformed income tax, it makes sense to follow with this corporation tax Bill. The second point is that existing practitioners are often somewhat dubious about the project, because they already know where everything is. They are familiar with the existing law and the various sections and schedules, and they know their way around. There is a complication when a new Act that changes things around is introduced. Of course, one must have a degree of intergenerational fairness to tax advisers in this area, and it might well be easier for future generations to find their way around with this new legislation. Sometimes it is recent legislation that is being amended—again, the Minister touched on this point. In particular, he highlighted the legislation on real estate investment trusts. The regime for REITs was introduced in 2006, and it is substantially rewritten in the Bill. I was struck by the remarks of John Sellers, the head drafter of HMRC's tax law rewrite project, in Committee on 11 January. He referred to the substantial recasting of REIT legislation and went on to say:""the legislation had been passed, I think, at a point when policy was still being developed and in those circumstances it was difficult to achieve the optimum arrangement of the material."" A couple of points can be made about that. First, I would be interested to know from the Minister, with his vast experience as a Treasury Minister, how often legislation is passed while policy is still being developed? Perhaps naively, I thought that the policy came first and the legislation followed, but possibly that was not the case. Perhaps that was a peculiarity of the Minister at the time, who, if I recall correctly, is now the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families. None the less, that is somewhat surprising. We will always face the need to improve the clarity of legislation if we do it that way round—if we do the legislation first and the policy second. That is somewhat surprising in this context because, if I recall correctly, the REIT legislation was in gestation for some time. It was not rushed. I would be grateful if the Minister could tell us why it has been necessary to recast it. Let me return to the limitations of the tax law rewrite project. There is quite a strong argument for reconsidering the REIT legislation, not just in terms of how it is structured and drafted, but on its merits, too. In the proceedings on the Finance Bill last year I tabled amendments on the restriction on distributions, for example. At least 90 per cent. of property income must be distributed in the year in question, and currently that has to be done in cash. There was an argument about whether shares should be allowed too, given that there should be no tax consequence. I do not want to go outside the scope of the Bill, but perhaps the Minister will say something about whether the Government are considering the REIT regime, which has cross-party support, more widely. I know there have been difficult economic conditions for REITs, but there is an argument about whether the regime could go further and whether reforms will be necessary. I would be interested to hear his views. None of these debates would be complete without my briefly mentioning the order-making powers in clauses 1178, 1179 and 1180. The Minister customarily reassures us that those order-making powers, which enable primary legislation to be changed by regulation, will be used only in exceptional circumstances. The Bill restricts them somewhat. I would be interested to know to what extent those powers have been used for previous tax law rewrite Bills. One point that was raised in Committee—it would be helpful if the Minister could address it in this debate—was whether a negative resolution is sufficient or whether the affirmative procedure should apply. My final query—I apologise: I have two final points; I am sorry to disappoint the Government Whip—relates to whether some of the changes will involve more or less tax being paid. The Minister has said that no major changes are contained in the measures, and rightly so, because they do not involve the same level of parliamentary scrutiny. However, I should like to know whether there has been any assessment of the revenue implications of the changes in the Bill, and whether there is a rough and ready test to determine whether a change constitutes a major change—one too significant to be contained in a tax law rewrite Bill. I should also like to know how that assessment is made. Finally, some of the amendments made in Committee, particularly those to schedule 1, relate to Northern Ireland, and I wonder why those issues were missed earlier. When the Minister responds to this point, will he say something about the process when new issues arise in Committee? Where do they come from, who identifies them and are they part of the consultation process? We would like to get a better idea of the point at which weaknesses and omissions are addressed. Subject to those queries and questions, we welcome the Bill. The tax law rewrite project might not be perfect and might have too limited a remit, and there is more to be done to move towards simplification, but we should none the less acknowledge the enormous efforts that have been made by many people to improve the clarity of our tax law. That is an important objective. A start has been made, and we hope that a future Government will take on the project and do more to simplify our tax system, not just to clarify it.