Other Matters

Tackling tax avoidance

The government will take a more strategic approach to the risk of avoidance to prevent increasing complexity and reduce the need for frequent legislative change. In this context, the government is tackling long-standing avoidance risks in a way that makes it clear what result the legislation intends to achieve.

The government intends to examine whether the option of a General Anti-Avoidance Rule should form one element of its strengthened defences.

The government will also continue to shut down avoidance schemes as they emerge.

Inheritance tax (IHT)

The government will consult on bringing IHT on trusts within the Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes regime.

Bank levy

A bank levy based on banks’ balance sheets will be introduced, following consultation, effective from 1 January 2011. It is proposed that the levy will be set at a rate of 0.07%, with a lower initial rate of 0.04% in 2011.

Time to Pay

HMRC will continue to offer Time to Pay as part of its support for all viable businesses having difficulty in meeting their tax obligations. In addition, to ensure that all requests continue to be assessed on a consistent basis, businesses that need to use the service more than once will be directed to a specialist team.

Video games industry

The government has announced that, following consultation on design, it will introduce a tax relief for the UK’s video games industry, subject to state aid approval from the European Commission.

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