I absolutely reject the hon. Gentleman’s point. We have a very good record on tackling tax avoidance, and as I said, at the moment I do not think that the GAR is anything to write home about. We have significant issues with it, but we will return to those points in Committee.
Clauses 12 and 13 make provisions for partnership arrangements, which we support. We welcome the regulations that will prevent the misuse of partnerships for the purpose of tax avoidance by focusing specifically on two issues. The first concerns partnerships and the tax-motivated allocation of profits and losses relating to the alternative investment fund managers directive, and the second concerns limited liability partnerships and the nature of the relationship between partners and the LLP.
Focusing on the second issue, the current HMRC interpretation of the existing tax rules has meant that individuals who are members of an LLP are taxed as though they are partners in a partnership, meaning that low-paid workers taken on as LLP members have lost employment benefits and protections, while, at the other end of the scale, high-paid workers have benefited from a self-employed status and the resulting loss of employment taxes payable. It is time for the use of LLPs as a way to disguise employment status and avoid employment taxes to stop. We note that the Budget report estimated that the Exchequer gains would be £125 million in 2014-15, rising to £365 million in 2015-16, and we support action in this area.
In conclusion, key aspects of the Bill began life as Labour party policy, so I suppose I should thank the Exchequer Secretary for giving us the rare pleasure of enacting legislation from opposition. It is a first for me, but one that I hope will happen many more times. The national insurance holiday scheme was a complete failure, and it is vital that the employment allowance gives businesses the support they need, but it is unacceptable that they will have been waiting four years for this support. Three of those years were wasted while he and the Government clung to the national insurance holiday scheme, and almost another year has been wasted as they have failed to take immediate action, instead introducing the employment allowance only from next
April. Even when forced to change course and do the right thing, they are still failing to go far enough and act quickly enough. Businesses up and down the country deserve better.
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