HC Deb 05 July 1960 vol 626 cc373-4

(1) The Agreement made on the twenty-third day of June, nineteen hundred and sixty, between the Governments of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland relating to the Agreements set out in the Eighteenth Schedule to the Act of 1952 (which first-mentioned Agreement is set out in the Schedule (Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of the Republic of Ireland with respect to certain exemptions from tax) to this Act) is hereby confirmed, and, subject to the necessary steps being taken to give it the force of law in the Republic of Ireland, shall have effect accordingly.

(2) In subsection (2) of section three hundred and forty-nine of the Act of 1952 for the words from "and by the Agreement" to "1959" there shall be substituted the words "and by the Agreements set out in the Seventh Schedule to the Finance Act, 1959, and the Schedule (Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of the Republic of Ireland with respect to certain exemptions from tax) to the Finance Act, 1960".

(3) For the purpose of carrying out any obligation of the Government of the United Kingdom under Article 2 of the Agreement set out in the said Schedule (Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of the Republic of Ireland with respect to certain exemptions from tax), Her Majesty may by Order in Council direct that any provisions of the Income Tax Acts specified in the Order (being provisions affecting in any way exemptions from income tax of persons resident in the United Kingdom) shall not affect, and be deemed not to have affected, exemptions from income tax which persons enjoy as not resident in the United Kingdom but resident in the Republic of Ireland.—[Sir E. Boyle.]

Brought up, and read the First time.

Sir E. Boyle

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

I assume that it will be convenient to the Committee to take the new Schedule —Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of the Republic of Ireland with respect to certain exemptions from tax—together with this new Clause, because that is the Schedule to which it is related. This new Clause confirms an Agreement made on 23rd June of this year between the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of the Irish Republic with respect to certain exemptions from tax. This is a matter which has a long and somewhat complicated history, with which I do not think I need trouble the Committee, though the matter has given a certain amount of trouble in past years. It will be for the satisfaction of the whole Committee that last year we entered into an Agreement with the Irish Republic to make it clear beyond any doubt that avoidance devices against which the two countries had enacted specific legislation could not be practised under cover of the exemptions provided by the Double Income Tax Agreement between the two countries. That Agreement was confirmed by Section 29 of the Finance Act, 1959, and indeed is set out in the Seventh Schedule to that Act.

In view of the introduction in our current Finance Bill of further provisions against tax avoidance, with which the Committee, I am sure, is only too familiar, a new amending Agreement has been negotiated with the Irish Republic so as to restate in more general terms the Agreement of last year. My right hon. Friend announced in a Parliamentary Answer on 21st June, that such an agreement was in the course of being negotiated. The Agreement has now been published as a White Paper and is set out in the proposed new Schedule which is to be found on the Notice Paper.

I do not think I need say any more in introducing this new Clause, which simply implements that Agreement, and will make the anti-avoidance measures of this Finance Bill more effective.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause read a Second time, and added to the Bill.