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National Insurance Contributions Bill

Amendments Nos. 34 and 35 would restrict the ability of the disclosure regulations for national insurance avoidance schemes to keep in step with the disclosure regulations for tax, which could result in an additional compliance burden for disclosers and is unnecessary. The power in new Section 132A(1) is restricted to applying to national insurance contributions, or making provisions for national insurance contributions corresponding to, income tax disclosure provisions with or without modifications. Regulations will be made so far as necessary to keep the national insurance disclosure rules in line with the equivalent tax legislation. It should be noted that the draft disclosure regulations published on 14 November 2005 specify, in paragraph 12, that disclosures should be made to the Commissioners of HM Revenue and Customs, which is in line with the position for tax disclosures. Changes in who receives the national insurance contributions disclosures would only follow a change to tax disclosure rules. Those rules are set out in Section 308 of the Finance Act 2004 and can be changed only by primary legislation. The Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee has considered the powers in the Bill, and stated that the provisions are acceptable. We are back on the point that, should at some stage in future there be a change in whom the tax disclosure rules go to, this would save the need for primary legislation to deal with national insurance provisions. Nothing is particularly intended at the moment, but the provision is to enable that facility, should there be a change in the disclosure rules for tax purposes, so that we do need to have primary legislation again for national insurance purposes to mirror that. The two are intended to be tied together. Should there be any change to the tax disclosure rules—I stress that I am not aware of any in the offing or being contemplated—this would continue to tie in with those rules.