HC Deb 17 July 1969 vol 787 cc961-3
Sir J. Foster

I beg to move Amendment No. 128, in page 33, line 6, at end insert:

(5) After subsection (4) of section 413 of the Finance Act, 1952, there shall be inserted the following subsection— '(5) The income of a person resident or domiciled out of the United Kingdom which falls to be ascertained for any purpose of the last preceding section be computed in accordance with the Income Tax Acts'. When you look at HANSARD tomorrow, Mr. Speaker, you will find that the speeches so far have been short, except for mine on Amendment No. 121, which could not be helped. This is a very short Amendment. It is another attempt to bring some sanity into Sections 412 and 413 of the 1952 Act. The Amendment is designed to secure that a person resident or domiciled out of the United Kingdom shall be taxed on the ordinary principles applicable to such persons and not on the principles which could be derived from Sections 412 and 413, which are contrary to the way in which a person of this status is treated.

I need not say anything more at this stage. The Financial Secretary will perhaps say that, in practice, the Revenue assesses such persons under this principle. I hope so.

Mr. Harold Lever

I am not quite clear why the hon. and learned Member for Northwich (Sir J. Foster) has this anxiety, because Section 412 speaks of: …any income of a person resident or domiciled out of the United Kingdom which, if it were income of that individual received by him in the United Kingdom, would be chargeable to Income Tax by deduction or otherwise… There is prima facie no reason to suppose that the Section requires the income to be calculated by any method except that normally applicable for calculation of the various types of income to which invested capital can give rise.

This has been brought up at rather short notice. I do not think that there is any difference of intent between the hon. and learned Gentleman and myself and I hope that he will see fit to withdraw the Amendment. I will certainly promise to see whether there is a problem here, and if there is I will put it right. I hope that the hon. and learned Gentleman will not think that I am admitting that there is any problem; we have not had time to look into this in depth.

Sir J. Foster

This only shows that what the right hon. Gentleman has said is right, namely, that this is an impossible way of trying to settle the details of taxation legislation. However, in view of his reply, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the Amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

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