Finance Bill News in Brief

Worries over gift inquiries

The Treasury has brushed aside a warning from the English ICA over a new statutory requirement for personal representatives to disclose lifetime gifts to the tax authorities. The Tory MP John Whittingdale said there was concern over having to make the ‘fullest inquiries’ to establish what gifts had been made in the seven years prior to death.

PwC tipping concerns The Treasury is claiming fears expressed in a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, that the landfill tax would cause more fly tipping, have been proved wrong. Financial secretary Barbara Roche denied this year’s increase from £7 to £10 per tonne would worsen the risk, citing the Environment Agency for England and Wales and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

Insurance tax fears Paymaster General Dawn Primarolo has heightened fears that insurance tax is ripe for further increases – despite insisting the Budget increase from 4% to 5% ‘does not signal a future change’. Primarolo denied a ‘wicked plot’ to harmonise rates across Europe – but pointed out rates on the Continent ‘are significantly higher than in the UK’. Tory MPs pointed out that, in opposition, former chief secretary Alistair Darling labelled the levy as a tax on victims and warned that the then Tory government would increase it.