§ The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Dr. John Gilbert)I understand that in my concluding remarks on new Clause 9 during yesterday's debate on the Finance Bill I said that the clause would make no change to the liability for tax of any individual as it merely related to the reporting requirements of the Revenue.
466 What I meant to say, of course, was that the clause would have no effect with respect to anyone's tax liability for 1974–75. The effect of the clause would, of course, be that the special legislation relating to the taxation of expense allowances and benefits in kind would apply—for the tax year 1975–76 and subsequent years—to employees whose earnings, including expenses and benefits in kind, are at the rate of £5,000 a year or more and, as now, to directors irrespective of their level of earnings.
It was with this in mind that I said yesterday that our introduction of new Clause 9 must not be taken as indicating that, in our view, the raising of the PI ID limit leaves the law in a satisfactory state. We are, as I said, reviewing the whole question of the taxation of benefits in kind. I apologise for inadvertently having misled the House in this manner.