§ Mr. Wakehamasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what would be the cost of giving tax relief for the following classes of disallowed business expenses, the reduction in yield for each class of expenditure and how much of the relief would be an adjustment to different taxation accounts; expenses of issuing debentures, expenses of raising or transferring a mortgage, commitment fees for loan facilities, commission for guaranteeing a loan, costs of share issues including the costs of obtaining a quotation, losses on foreign currency borrowings, discount on redemption of debentures, bonus or premiums on the payment of loan, commercial buildings, warehouses, offices, shops, secondhand industrial buildings, sites for waste disposal, trade marks, capital costs of trade effluent disposal, pre-trading expenditure, costs of abortive capital projects, payments to terminate onerous contracts and redundancy payments in excess of statutory limits.
52Ware based upon the information readily available:
vidual countries the hon. Member may wish to refer to table 4.1 of Regional Statistics No. 14 (HMSO 1979) for information related to the cost of relief on social security benefits, and to the table below for information related to the cost of the main personal allowances.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonIn certain circumstances, tax relief is already available for some of the expenses listed. I regret that there is insufficient information to estimate the cost of giving tax relief for those items for which there is no relief at present. In particular cases, however—for example, losses on foreign currency borrowings and relief for commercial buildings—the cost could be substantial depending on the way in which the relief was given.