National Insurance Contributions Bill

Let me answer the second point first, if I may. On the certainty issue, in any one year we do not know how many people will be in the employment market, as we have gathered from the constantly changing growth figures that have been published since the autumn review last year. For that reason, there will never be complete certainty for any Government at any time. What we are looking for here is commercial certainty. Surely it is the entitlement of individuals and companies to have that level of certainty. After all, tax is not a voluntary regime; it is imposed by a Government on their people. Such an imposition gives any Government of any day great power. The certainty that is therefore required is commercial certainty for those who could suffer from a tax. On the Paymaster General’s first point, our concern is the law of unintended consequences. We never quite know how things will unravel. I am not looking necessarily to stand up for those tax advisers and employee benefits remuneration people whose ingenuity allows new schemes to be developed at any one time; but equally, it is not the duty either of an employee or an employer, or of a company, to maximise the tax paid. They are quite entitled, where they can, to find what might be regarded as loopholes. It is obviously the Treasury’s job, where there are unintended loopholes, to close those for the future.