Finance Bill

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would hate to miss the opportunity to respond to the debate. The hon. Member for Dundee, East (Stewart Hosie) is right that we have been through this in some detail more than once. He is right, too, that it is an important matter, as hon. Members have emphasised. The hon. Member for Chipping Barnet (Mrs. Villiers) recognises—and I am glad that she did so so clearly—the need to tackle the avoidance that undoubtedly results from the existence of MSCs. She supports our proposals on two conditions: the provisions should be clearly drafted and appropriately targeted. I hope that I can give her that reassurance tonight, as I have tried to do in previous debates on the Bill. I hope that that reassurance will help the hon. Member for South-East Cornwall (Mr. Breed), too, as well as my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Rob Marris). I am glad of my hon. Friend’s support in principle, as well as his recognition, which was shared by the hon. Member for South-East Cornwall, of the difficult need to balance provisions to catch those whom we want to catch against the need not to bring into the net those whom we do not want to catch or indeed, introduce provisions that will have perverse consequence. I shall try to deal with concerns about back-office companies that offer administrative services and, in so doing, tackle the question of exemption and whether or not provisions that have been in place for some time have had effect on employment. I shall then deal specifically with the amendments tabled by the hon. Member for Chipping Barnet so that, without delaying the House unduly, I can deal with hon. Members’ concerns. The hon. Lady reiterated, as she has done consistently, understandable concerns about the position of freelancers. Freelancers who outsource any part of their administration are not, and should not be, in danger of being caught by the legislation, which is not intended to, nor does it, catch persons genuinely in business on their own account who receive help to run their company. The legislation catches those who have simply been provided with a company as a means to an end. In achieving that end, they need the company to be run for them. The legislation therefore does not prohibit small contractors from outsourcing the administration of their companies. They can obtain the support services that they need, but there is a distinct difference between someone who offers back-office services to client companies generally and someone who is in the business of promoting or facilitating the use of companies to provide the services of individuals who, as part of that business, offer support services. Of course, such people can operate through MSCs if they choose—that is not a problem, and we do not discourage it—but they will have to pay the proper employed levels of tax and national insurance. Let me try to make the point slightly differently so as to pick up a set of associated concerns. Simply because someone is not exempt by virtue of proposed new section 61B(3) does not mean that they are caught by the legislation—a point that I have made in previous debates. If that is to happen, someone must fulfil wholly the criterion of proposed new subsection (1)(d), which links directly to proposed new subsection (1)(B), too. They must first be in the business of promoting or facilitating the use of companies to provide individuals’ services. HMRC will give careful consideration to requests to consider the application and qualification for exemption, but I stress that those providing corporate solutions to persons seeking to disguise employment use a wide variety of structures. Any examination should not provide scope for MSC providers to exempt themselves from the legislation. Let me tackle the question whether people are going out of business. It seems that some MSC providers are winding up or changing their businesses because there is no longer a tax and national insurance advantage from operating an MSC scheme. That reinforces the point that such schemes existed only to avoid tax and national insurance, and now that that has been stopped, they have no real reason to continue in business.