§ Amendment proposed: No. 10, in page 14, line I7 after 'payment', insert 'of a sum of money'.—[Mr. Ryder.]
§ Mr. Nicholas BrownWe said in Committee that the word "payment" covered only a payment of money, yet as the Government have drafted the clause it could have a wider and, as it turned out in the course of the debate, unintended meaning. The amendments suggest that our worries were well founded. I can see that their purpose is to address our worries and to tidy up the Bill.
§ Mr. RyderI am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for drawing our attention to the problem in Committee. As a result of his observations, we have made changes and I appreciate his help.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§
Amendment proposed: No. 11, in page 14, line 23, after 'it', insert
or, where the donor or a person connected with him does receive a benefit in consequence of making it, the relevant value in relation to the gift does not exceed two and a half per cent. of the amount of the gift and the amount to be taken into account for the purposes of this paragraph in relation to the gift does not exceed £250'.—[Mr. Ryder.]
§ Madam Deputy SpeakerWith this it will be convenient to take Government amendments Nos. 12, 13 and 15.
§ Mr. Nicholas BrownThe amendments derive from a suggestion that the Opposition made on the Floor of the House about training and enterprise councils. In Committee, again with regard to gift aid, we said that blanket anti-avoidance clauses which ruled out tax relief whenever the donor received any benefit, however small, were too wide and that a de minimis restriction should be introduced. At the time the Government rejected the idea, but they offered to reconsider. The amendments are a welcome result of that reconsideration.
§ Mr. RyderAgain, I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for the assistance that he has provided. As a result of that assistance we have tabled the amendments.
§ Amendment agreed to.
801§ Amendment made: No. 12, in page 14, line 42, at end insert—
§ '(3A) For the purposes of subsections (2)(e) above and (3B) below, the relevant value in relation to a gift is—
- (a) where there is one benefit received in consequence of making it which is received by the donor or a person connected with him, the value of that benefit;
- (b) where there is more than one benefit received in consequence of making it which is received by the donor or a person connected with him, the aggregate value of all the benefits received in consequence of making it which are received by the donor or a person connected with him.
§ (3B) The amount to be taken into account for the purposes of subsection (2)(e) above in relation to a gift to a charity is an amount equal to the aggregate of—
- (a) the relevant value in relation to the gift, and
- (b) the relevant value in relation to each gift already made to the charity by the donor in the relevant year of assessment which is a qualifying donation for the purposes of this section.'.—[Mr. Ryder.]
§ Mr. Nicholas BrownI beg to move amendment No. 41, in page 15, line 11, leave out
'shall be assessed and'and insert
'in respect of so much of them as is equal to the payment and may be deducted in computing his total income the donor shall be'.If the Government are grateful for our two small amendments to the gift aid clauses so far, I hope that they will be even more grateful for this amendment. We tackled the matter at some length in Committee so I shall not go over the issues again.Amending the Bill along the lines that we suggest here could save Her Majesty's Government as much as £4 billion. We hold to the view that the Bill is unintentionally imperfectly drafted. We addressed that in Committee. We had a Division on the point. The Economic Secretary was somewhat hesitant to vote no. I hope that he has had time to reconsider and will accept this clarification of the intention of both the Opposition and the Government. Our aims are the same; we are arguing about the phraseology. I believe that we have it right in our amendment and that the Bill is still flawed.
§ Mr. RyderIt is a pleasure to advise my hon. Friends to accept the Opposition's amendment. Again, I appreciate the assistance that the hon. Gentleman has given us, particularly in Committee.
§ Amendment agreed to.
§ Amendment made: No. 13, in page 15, line 28, leave out 'subsection (2)' and insert 'subsections (2) and (3A)'.—[Mr. Ryder.]