Finance Bill

We have had a useful debate on clause 25. The clause introduces measures to tackle the problems set out in the consultation document entitled ““Tackling Managed Service Companies””, which we published last December. As you rightly pointed out, Mr. Gale, schedule 3 contains the detailed provisions, to which we will return in the Public Bill Committee. I look forward to your chairmanship of that Committee, and I have enjoyed your chairmanship this afternoon. I am glad that we have been able to arrange to debate the clause today, uncomfortable as it is for our discussion in this Committee of the whole House. It is an arrangement that the Opposition wished for, and I am glad that we have been able to accommodate them. Many of the detailed points that the hon. Member for Chipping Barnet (Mrs. Villiers) raised clearly relate directly to schedule 3. We will return to and deal with them in detail in the debate in the Public Bill Committee, rather than tonight. The Opposition amendments would delay the date on which the legislation takes effect. Before I consider those, and the legislation in general, perhaps it would help the Committee if I reminded hon. Members of the rationale for legislating in this sector and outlined the consultation that we have undertaken. I hope that it will help to reassure hon. Members that we are not acting in haste, that we have considered the measures in some detail, and that what we propose is the necessary and right response to the problem that we increasingly face with managed service companies. The questions are significantly different from the questions that we may have considered with IR35 and personal service companies. Managed service companies are corporate structures through which workers provide labour services. What is notable is that managed service company schemes are mass marketed, and it is not appropriate to use the intermediaries legislation to try to deal with them. In the vast majority of cases, workers in managed service companies are not in business on their own account and the nature of their engagements is equivalent to one of employment. Mr. Gale, you and the House will remember that the House has taken action not just in the last decade but in previous decades to maintain a clear policy intent, which is that those who are, in substance, employed should be treated by the tax system as being employed. For example, between 1988 and 1996, six separate pieces of legislation were introduced by the Conservative party to counter the use of what were then termed readily convertible assets specifically to avoid class 1 national insurance contributions. The steps that we are taking in respect of managed service companies should be seen in the context of that clear and consistent intent, endorsed on occasions by the House, both in the past decade and previously. Those mass marketed schemes are almost always promoted on the basis that the worker will pay less tax. Let me refer to one or two such schemes and quote the sort of publicity that those companies were issuing before the pre-Budget report announcement in December. Nova Corporate Services said:"““Our aim…Established in 2001, Nova was set up with one goal in mind—to increase the take-home pay of its members: ""self-employed people, frequently in temporary employment and largely working through employment agencies.""The result—less tax! Individuals who choose to work through a Nova company pay considerably less PAYE (income tax) and National Insurance than those who continue to be paid directly by employment agencies.””" Around the same time, before the pre-Budget report announcement, Brookson detailed the advantages of working through a managed service company:"““Well, for a start we can make your life easier by taking care of all your paperwork and handling all your tax issues. As well as saving you time we can also save you money by reducing the amount of tax payable increasing nett pay by anything up to 30 per cent. For a very competitive weekly fee Brookson will””—" and it goes on to detail precisely how the company will, essentially, take away any suggestion that an individual, through an MSC, is managing their own affairs or involved in that. It then says:"““With every aspect of administration and accounting taken care of, you are free to concentrate on what you do best—your job.””" I could refer to a number of other examples that I have brought into the Chamber with me. If I could read Polish, I could quote similar provisions set out in Polish to attract foreign workers, binding them in from the start of their employment—disguised employment—in this country in this way. Let me give Members an idea of the scale of the tax benefit, and therefore of the artificial tax arrangements and their impact. Currently, an employee earning £30,000 who incorporates for tax purposes will pay £4,290 less tax and national insurance than other employees on the same salary. It is important to be clear that such workers are being encouraged to use incorporation as a means of disguising their real employment status. We are trying to tackle that. Workers in MSCs are shareholders in the company, formally. Generally, they are paid a combination of salary at the level of the national minimum wage and dividends, on which a lower rate of income tax applies and on which no national insurance is levied. That is the nature of the tax gain, and it shows the artificiality of the tax arrangements. Under existing rules—the intermediaries legislation, often known as IR35—employed levels of tax and national insurance should be paid, but in most cases the rules are not followed. That a large and growing number of workers are involved in these mass marketed schemes makes it difficult to enforce them. That is why we need fresh legislation in this area. The use of MSCs has grown sharply in recent years. It is estimated that in 2005-06 240,000 workers were in MSCs. As I hope Members appreciate, there are obvious difficulties in quantifying the impact and the figures, but the Government consider this to represent a significant and unacceptable risk to the public purse, which we cannot allow to continue. The estimated yield from this proposed legislation in 2007-08 is about £350 million. Furthermore, we aim that it will deter future use of MSCs and protect the Exchequer against future losses.