Finance (No 2) Bill 2023 passes Committee Stages

The Public Bill Committee finished its consideration of Finance (No 2) Bill 2023 on 18 May 2023.

All UK government amendments have been passed as follows (all other amendments either failed or were withdrawn):

The agreed amendments will now be added to the Bill which will be reprinted in time for Report Stage, which is the final opportunity for amendments to be made. Timings and any proposed amendments for Report Stage will be added to the Parliament website in due course.

The CIOT had submitted the following new representation papers for consideration by the Committee:

• Low income estates in administration and trusts (clause 29, Sch 2): although the £500 de minimis is a welcome practical measure, the measures will do little to simplify the position for very small trusts;
• CGT – share exchanges involving non-UK close companies (clause 36): questions remain around who is in scope and how the rules will apply in practice. CGT rules for divorcing couples (clause 41): these changes are welcomed by the CIOT; and
• Abolition of the OTS (clause 346): in a further detailed submission, the CIOT asks for this decision to be reconsidered.

In the Public Bill Committee debate on clause 29, James Murray (Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury) raised CIOT concerns around the impact of the changes on trusts, potentially increasing reporting and compliance burdens. It is not immediately clear from the Minister’s response whether the point was taken on board.

Mr Murray also highlighted an interesting point around the origins of the clause 41 changes to the CGT treatment of spouses and civil partners in the process of separating. According to the Explanatory Notes to the Bill, the measure came out of the Office of Tax Simplification’s CGT report. As Murray noted in the debate: ‘There is at the very least something ironic about a Government who use one clause of a Finance Bill to implement a recommendation of the Office of Tax Simplification and another clause of the same Bill to abolish that institution.’