REDUCTION OF TAX (Hansard, 11 May 1983)

The Chairman
With this it will be convenient to discuss the consequential manuscript amendment, in clause 98, page 79, line 18, leave out from beginning to end of line 19.

§ Mr. Brittan
This is another so-called concession that has been extracted by the Opposition in the dying days of this Parliament. It is even more futile than those that have preceded it because I suspect that it does not achieve that which the right hon. Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Mr. Sheldon) wished. I hasten to add that I would never have agreed to it were it not for the circumstances in which we find ourselves today.
Clause 63, which is to be deleted, would have increased the threshold for capital transfer tax from £55,000 to £60,000 and widened the chargeable bands slightly beyond indexation. The right hon. Gentleman's insistence on the deletion is another example of the Opposition's small-mindedness. Fortunately, whether by accident or design, the damage will be less than if the income tax change had survived the election. The threshold and rates will now become those for last year but increased to take account of price changes over the year to last December. In other words, they will still be indexed. Unlike income tax considerations, legislation provides for indexation in the absence of any specific provision. If the specific provision that would have given somewhat more than indexation is removed, the result is indexation. The grand total of all the Opposition's huffing and puffing is that instead of the threshold increasing to £60,000 from £55,000 it will increase to £58,000. I hope that they will find that something exciting to crow over.
The index scales are set out in full in the capital transfer tax indexation order. The rate bands are far less sensible than those that my right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed and contain some curious figures. However, if that is the result that the Opposition want, that is what they will have. Is for those 845 reasons that I regard the amendment as a damp squib of a concession. It is appropriate that the Opposition should conclude their faltering efforts on the Bill upon it.

§ Mr. Robert Sheldon
The right hon. and learned Gentleman can hardly say that the Opposition have huffed and puffed, as the amendment was moved formally. The right hon. and learned Gentleman knows that there would have to have been rather complicated amendments to achieve a better result. We thought it right to show our opposition to the proposed increase in the benefits that were to be obtained by means of the clause. We opposed the clause originally and we continued to do so. I know that the right hon. and learned Gentleman will accept the amendment in the same generous spirit in which he has accepted the others.