Finance Bill

As the hon. Member for Falmouth and Camborne (Julia Goldsworthy) said, we have covered much of the ground before, several times since the Budget, and we have rehearsed many of the general arguments in debates on the Bill and elsewhere. The arguments that I heard this evening from the hon. Member for Fareham (Mr. Hoban) are fundamentally flawed, first in the proposition that there should be a differential in how the small companies rate is charged, and secondly, in the way that he attempted to target those rates. There are huge practical difficulties with attempting to fix a tax rate based on fairly arbitrary and easily manipulated criteria, such as employment figures. What is the rationale for choosing five employees as representing a real company, rather than, say, six or four? What if employment levels change throughout the year? Would a company wait until after it had filed its tax returns to cut the work force? Would it take on temporary workers in order to get above the magic level of five employees? On a more serious level, one needs to consider the risk of distorting what should be commercial decisions because of a tax structure. That would create incentives for small companies to merge not for commercial reasons, but for tax reasons. It would also be an incentive to exaggerate employment levels in the company. The proposition is seriously flawed in a number of ways. The core of the problem is not the practicality of introducing such arbitrary measures, but the rationale for doing so. To encourage investment, as the hon. Member for Fareham recognised, the Government have looked to reduce corporation tax rates successively since 1997, to the extent that even when we reverse that trend and return the small companies rate to 22 per cent., it will be still be lower than when we came into office in 1997. The hon. Gentleman acknowledged that earlier. The hon. Gentleman criticised us for what he termed constant meddling with the rates, but at each stage what we have done, and the rationale for doing it, have been clearly set out. At each stage we have said that the changes that we are making in the rates were to encourage retention, reinvestment and growth. As with all elements of the tax system, we have made it clear that we would keep those changes under careful and constant review. As hon. Members have recognised, the earlier changes and their impact were not as we intended. We saw an increase in incorporation taking place, not as a launch pad for growth but as a way of reducing personal tax and national insurance levels, while in many cases those involved were carrying out exactly the same economic activity as before. That is why we decided to change the way in which we focus incentives for growth, and we have changed the focus, not for some businesses, or those with fewer than five employees, but for all businesses—not just companies, but those that are unincorporated as well. The hon. Member for Fareham cited the Federation of Small Businesses, and I shall do so too, as I have in previous debates. It has welcomed the proposal for the annual investment allowance, which will benefit the direct activity of investment. By providing an allowance of up to £50,000 for all businesses, the arrangement will cover all the yearly expenditure of about 19 out of 20 small businesses, effectively providing them with 100 per cent. first-year allowances, moving towards a cash-flow tax system, dealing with what many small businesses constantly say is their biggest problem—their tax-flow levels. Even modest levels of investment in plant and machinery will bring significant benefits. We recognise that there are many sound reasons for incorporation. We do not want to stop or discourage genuine commercial incorporations. We are proud of our record in encouraging the start-up and growth of small firms, not least with the stability that we have been able to bring to the general economy. The changes that we are making in the Bill build on that success. They reduce the unfair tax advantages that can distort competition between incorporated and unincorporated businesses, and they ensure that the incentives in the tax system that are designed to promote growth will do just that. For that reason, I hope that the hon. Member for Fareham will not press amendment No. 43. Amendments Nos. 41 and 42 go directly against what businesses say to us that they want—a simple and fair tax system—so I hope that he will not press those amendments, either. If he does, I shall ask my hon. Friends to resist.