The Summer Budget 2015 has now morphed into the Summer Finance Bill, officially known as the Finance Bill 2015-16. It has already completed the first and second reading and when parliament reconvenes after the summer recess it will move forward to the committee stage 8 September 2015.
After the committee it will continue through process:
• House of Commons – report stage
• House of Commons – third reading
It will then receive identical readings and committee attention in the House of Lords. There will follow consideration of amendments before the bill receives Royal Assent.
So where does that leave us? For the next few months we know what the government wants to change, but how much of the Finance Bill will be amended or deleted on its tortuous progress? The Conservatives majority of twelve may be stretched…
Certainly, advisors will need to assume that the Bill will survive, largely intact, and advise clients accordingly.
If you want to be kept abreast of progress you can register to receive emailed updates on the parliament web site at http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/finance/stages.html. Click on the RSS feed or email link under the “Stay up to date” section of the page.
Readers may also be interested to know that the Office of Tax Simplification is to achieve a permanent status. Did you know it wasn’t permanent? The Finance Bill confirms the new status and adds a brief for two very interesting simplifications of our tax system.
They are:
• The closer alignment of income tax and National Insurance contributions, and
• The second is a review of the taxation of small companies, focussing on the distortions between the personal and business tax systems.
Be interesting to monitor the progress of these reviews as they could both have a significant impact on tax planning and tax compliance.
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