---

Finance Bill

I am grateful for the opportunity to say a few words about this very important Bill. One has only to look at it to appreciate its complexity. Some years ago, I sat on the Joint Committee on Consolidation Bills, which was dealing with income and corporation taxes. We were chaired by a distinguished Lord Justice of Appeal. Given the vast quantity of legislation that we had to consider and having had some background in the process of legislation before I came to the House, I pointed out that we ought to address a number of aspects, particularly in respect of Finance Bills. My main point was that with Finance Bills we are dealing not only with pieces of paper but with the impact on people. There is not only the balance between spending and taxing to consider, but the impact that that has on the running of businesses. There is one absolute in politics, apart from the fact that there is nothing more inevitable than death and taxation. One other important nostrum of which we should take account is that not a single penny of public expenditure and not a single element of public services comes from anywhere else than through taxation on private companies, partnerships or private enterprise generally. Those things come from nowhere else—unless money is printed, which has become the fashion for the Government. An important part of the argument that we need to address as we move towards government is the fact that the key failure of the Government has been their lack of any recognition that the Finance Bill—huge as it is—will, overall, do harm rather than good. It will do harm because of its complexity and over-regulation, although I am sure that it will considerably help the profits of the major and some of the minor accountancy companies. Many years ago, my great uncle was president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Furthermore, I am told that back in the 1870s, the firm of Cash-Stone—or whatever it was called in those days—became one of the first accountancy bodies when it got its royal charter. However, as far as I am concerned, the way in which the whole accountancy profession has moved in respect of tax has been generated by successive Finance Bills. This Bill is a first-class example of the massive additional cost that will fall on business at the very time when we least want to put obstacles and obstructions in the way of successful enterprise and successful companies. It will not surprise you, Madam Deputy Speaker, that I get irritated when I hear people saying that we have to include this or that provision because of some overarching European requirement. I do not need to dilate on that this evening, because in making the point I have already registered all my concerns in a simple sentence. I intend to speak about other things.