§ Mr. McCrindleasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if any other EEC country allows essential expenditure on travel to work to be set off against income tax; and if he will publish abbreviated details of each such scheme.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 29th November 1976; Vol. 921, c. 46], gave the following information:
Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands are the only countries which allow deductions specifically for this type of expenditure. In Germany the deduction is limited, where the journey is by private transport, to 0–36 DM per kilometre if by car and 0.16 DM per kilometre if by motor cycle, and in Luxembourg to a maximum of the cost of public transport for a journey of 40 kilometres. In the Netherlands there is a scale of fixed allowances ranging from 151 fl for a journey of less than 10 kilometres, to 1,530 fl for one of more than 50 kilometres.
§ Mr. McCrindleasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if any other EEC country allows relief against company taxation on assistance given to employees in respect of their travelling to and from work; and if he will publish abbreviated details of each such scheme.
292W
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 1st December 1976; Vol. 921, c. 389], gave the following information:
Estimates of spending by all foreign visitors to the United Kingdom, excluding international air and shipping fares, are shown in the table below, together with estimate figures for exports of iron and steel products, road motor vehicles, chemicals, coal and ships and boats.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 1st December 1976 Vol. 921, c. 189], gave the following information:
The only EEC country which has a specific provision affecting payments of this kind is Belgium where I understand the first 5,000F of such expenditure per employee would be deductible in computing a company's taxable profits, but the balance over 5,000F would be allowed only if it satisfied certain conditions. In other EEC countries relief would be available to the extent that the payments satisfied the normal rules applying in those countries to the deductibility of business expenditure for tax purposes.