§ Mr. Denzil DaviesI beg to move Amendment No. 91, in page 16, line 15, after assessment ', insert:
'(apart from any visit which does not exceed, or visits which together do not exceed, 30 days)'.Clause 25 provides for non-resident children a reserved right for 1977–78 only to child tax allowances at the full 1976–77 level provided that certain conditions are met.The condition with which the amendment is concerned is in subsection (2)(a). The amendment introduces a disregard for visits to the United Kingdom totalling more than 30 days. The amendment is put down following an undertaking given by my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the hon. Member for Braintree (Mr. Newton) who, in Committee, argued that some relaxation of the rigidity of the clause should be allowed. The 30 days will now be excluded in determining whether the child tax allowances should be allowed. The amendment meets the undertaking given in Committee. I commend it to the House.
§ Mr. NewtonI thank the Minister for acknowledging a point that I made in Committee. Our worry was that the parent of a child who appeared in this country for perhaps only 24 or 48 hours might find that he was in receipt neither of a tax allowance nor of a child benefit because he had paid a brief visit here. I am glad that that point has been cleared up and, indeed, eased.
In Committee there was some argument about the possible interpretation of the phrase
does not in that year normally live in a country or territory".We had the oddity of the Chief Secretary resisting an amendment that included that phrase on the ground that it could not be interpreted when in fact the clause included that phrase. We still have not heard how it will be interpreted. Perhaps at this hour of the night we might leave that problem to the Chief Secretary, and no doubt in due course 164 we shall be told how it will be interpreted.
§ Amendment agreed to.