Committee debates on Finance Bill 2020 – sessions 4, 5 and 6

Continuing their deliberations in the fourth sitting of the public bill committee MPs reached ‘the lush hinterlands of the banking surcharge regime’ as described by the financial secretary to the Treasury Jesse Norman.

The first three matters discussed were quickly decided. Clause 32 makes changes to ensure that banks cannot reduce their profits subject to the surcharge by using losses from non-banking companies in their groups. ‘Above all’ said Mr Norman the clause makes certain that banks pay the additional tax on all their banking profits.

Wes Streeting (Labour) welcomed the clause. He said the opposition recognised ‘the UK is a global financial centre and that the financial services industry is an asset to our country’ in that it generated jobs and provided the ‘oil to grease the wheels of the economy’. However referring back to the part...