Schedule
27Remittance
basis Question
proposed, That the schedule be the Twenty-seventh schedule to the
Bill.
Mr.
Hoban: Hon. Members may have been thinking that they were
just going to breeze through schedule 27 and clause 52 of the Bill.
Having spent a day last year in Committee debating the way in which the
residence and domicile rules were going to work in practice, I feel
this could not pass without some comment. Many of the questions about
the function of these rules that hon. Members raised in Committee on
last year’s Finance Bill have come back to haunt the Government
and have led to the changes that we see in this Bill. We raised a
number of questions about the filing of returns, the de minimis limit,
trading, spouses and property, all of which are dealt with in this part
of the Bill.
The first
question I want to raise relates to the
“application of
the remittance basis without claim where unremitted foreign income and
gains are under
£2,000”. That
change in the Bill means there is now no requirement to file a return
where gains are less than £2,000, which is to be welcomed. At
the time the matter was raised, we flagged up our concern that to file
such a return would be significant burden on HMRC and the taxpayer.
However, in clause 52, the rules are amended to introduce a de minimis
limit of £10,000, so what happens now? Is someone with foreign
income of less than £10,000 still required to file a
self-assessment claim, or does the £2,000 limit apply in such a
case?
It is
important to have clarity on that point, because there is a large
number of people who work here temporarily who may have some foreign
income from overseas. We discussed the large number of migrant workers
last year, and my hon. Friend the Member for Hammersmith and Fulham,
who is not in his place, cited the example of Polish workers in the UK
who might have some residual income, say from a flat they have back in
Poland—rental income or other
interest. 10.25
am The
Chairman adjourned the Committee without Question put (Standing Order
No.
88). Adjourned
till this day at One
o’clock.
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