Finance Bill

I am happy to respond to the debate on the new clause, and on proposals for a report to Parliament on the costs to the taxpayer of the tax treatment of carried interest and the deductibility of interest payable on loans. I am happy to respond in the spirit in which the hon. Member for Fareham (Mr. Hoban) spoke to his new clause. I think that he was seeking to probe our thinking on some tax issues in advance of the pre-Budget report, while trying to avoid being drawn into too wide a discussion on the merits or otherwise of private equity, and the views of deputy leadership candidates—or victors—on the subject. I am happy to respond in that spirit. The hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) quoted from a speech that I gave in March, in which I set out in detail our views at the time on the private equity debate. Since then, there has been a great deal of further debate in the newspapers, and there looks set to be a very interesting report from the Treasury Committee, which held its evidence-gathering sessions in recent weeks. I will read just one quote from that speech, as it will set the context, and show that I accept and agree with many of the points that the hon. Member for Fareham made. I said:"““Private equity, like any other form of ownership, has good and bad aspects—and it has features of both long-termism and short-termism. But the evidence does not suggest that Government has any intrinsic reason either to "favour" private equity or to do the opposite.""Our aim should be to support economic dynamism and long-term investment and job creation. And the Government's objectives in the field of private equity should be no different from its objectives in relation to any other form of ownership: to promote an environment of long-term, sustainable business success, underpinned by a strong culture of clear disclosure to, and engagement with, underlying investors. This is the way to ensure that "good" long-term investment propositions prosper.””" Everything that we are doing in the field of private equity is in the context of that overall objective. The hon. Member for Fareham will not be surprised that I am not going to support his proposals for a further report. That is not because I am averse to reports but because rather a lot of reports on this issue are already on the table or being prepared. I have already referred to the forthcoming report by the Treasury. In my speech in March, I mentioned a report already provided by the Financial Services Authority into private equity’s potential systemic implications for the stability of financial markets. On disclosure and transparency, Sir David Walker is chairing an independent working party to develop a voluntary ““comply or explain”” code to improve private equity’s transparency and levels of disclosure. The hon. Gentleman mentioned a review that I have promised for the pre-Budget report of the rules that apply to the use of shareholder debt where it replaces the equity element in highly leveraged deals. There is also the forthcoming report on improving the UK environment for enterprise and venture capital commissioned by the shadow Chancellor from the European School of Management, which is to report by early autumn before the Treasury taxation reviews conclude. In other words, there are a rather a lot of reports coming up. Before the pre-Budget report and following the shadow Chancellor’s review, we will want to take stock across the piece and respond properly to recommendations by the Treasury Committee, as we always have in other policy areas. I am not sure that another report is necessary. The hon. Member for Fareham tried to draw out some of our thinking on these tax issues. Both aspects of the new clause relate to the tax treatment of the private equity industry. As I have already said, the Government do not believe that one form of ownership should be inherently preferred over another. Rather, our aim should be to support economic dynamism and long-term investment and job creation. That is also the objective of our tax system. We do not believe that private equity should be favoured in a particular way, including in tax terms. Therefore, the capital gains tax treatment available for gains arising from carried interest and corporate tax deductions for interest—the two aspects mentioned in the new clause—is available to all taxpayers, not only to private equity investors in any preferential way compared with any other investor. Let me deal first with carried interest. The hon. Member for Fareham referred to a memorandum of understanding published in 2003. To set that properly in context, a previous memorandum of understanding had been produced in 1987 by the Inland Revenue and the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, which made it clear that carried interest would continue to be taxed to capital gains, not income. During the 2003 Finance Bill debate on this issue, which neither I nor the hon. Member for Fareham will remember—I am sure that my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Rob Marris) was not only there but commented on the explanatory notes—concern was expressed, particularly by the former Member for Arundel and South Downs, that changes being introduced to schedule 22, covering the whole range of employment-related securities, might have a negative impact on the capital gains tax treatment of venture capital. As a result of those debates, the memorandum of understanding that had been agreed in 1987 was re-examined and a new one, again agreed between the Revenue and the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association was published. It provided guidance to the industry, but, importantly, did not affect the operation of the law in the Finance Act 2003. That memorandum of understanding confirms that returns received through carried interest should, in law, in the circumstances that it sets out—in plain vanilla form, which is a technical tax term that means ““in a simple and straightforward way””—be taxed as capital gains. No concessions were made to the private equity industry at the time, but the memorandum of understanding clearly set out how the underlying legislation applied in the case of carried interest. It set that out in a way that would apply to any taxpayer who received such employment-related securities.