As we turn to the Bill’s Committee stage, I will address the new clauses tabled in my name and the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Erith and Thamesmead (Abena Oppong-Asare).
We know that social care desperately needs more funding and the Government claim that their Bill today will help to raise some of that money, but the truth is that there is nothing in this Bill that will guarantee a penny going towards social care. I will return to that point when I address new clause 6, but first I want to look at the core measure that this Bill introduces—the unfair tax rise on working people and their jobs. Our new clause 3 would require the Government to report to the House of Commons on the impact that the Bill will have on tax revenue derived from different sources of income. On the one hand, there is income from employment and self-employment, which the Government have chosen to tax hard. On the other hand, as new clause 3 mentions, there is income from dividends, rental properties and other sources of wealth, which the Government have left untouched. We know that the Government have chosen not to raise taxes for those with large portfolios of stocks and shares, and for landlords renting out multiple properties, but the Bill even lacks any mention of taxes on dividends, despite the Prime Minister saying that they would be taxed more. Perhaps when the Financial Secretary to the Treasury responds, he could explain why the Government have chosen to delay implementing a tax rise in dividends until the next Finance Bill or beyond. Will he give us his word that the increase in tax on dividends will definitely go ahead?
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As I said earlier, the Government have pulled out all the stops to push through legislation that raises taxes on jobs at breakneck speed, but they show no urgency whatever in raising the tax on dividends by an equivalent amount. Let us be clear, though: even if they do go ahead with their dividends tax increase, they have already admitted that it will raise just a small percentage of the amount that they are seeking; 95% of the revenue that they expect to generate still comes off the back of working people and their jobs.
The Government have said many times that they believe that there is no alternative to the national insurance rise and the levy introduced in the Bill. Yet in the days that followed the Government’s announcement, the London School of Economics, Warwick University, the Institute for Public Policy Research, the Social Market Foundation and many others have all come forward with other ways of raising the money. Our new clause 8 would have required the Government to report, before the levy comes in, on how the revenue could be raised by increasing taxes on income derived from wealth such as rental income and income from trading financial assets, instead of from employment. Although new clause 8 has not been selected today, I hope that Government Back Benchers will have had the chance to see it on the amendment paper. Ahead of the levy’s planned introduction in 2023, there is ample time for the Government to produce such a report.