Finance Bill — New Clause 2 — Review of Changes Relating to the Northern Ireland Rate of Corporation Tax and Smaller Enterprises — 11 Oct 2017 at 16:45

The majority of MPs voted against a review of the impact of changes in the law relating to the Northern Ireland rate of Corporation Tax and smaller enterprises.

MPs were considering the Finance Bill^[1].

The proposed new clause rejected in this vote was titled: "Review of changes to chargeability of trading profits to corporation tax at Northern Ireland rate" and stated:

• (1) CTA 2010 is amended as follows.
• (2) After section 357WH (Allocation of Northern Ireland profits etc of firm to company), insert—
• “357WI  Review of changes to chargeability of trading profits to corporation tax at Northern Ireland rate
• (1) As soon as practicable after the completion of the first financial year in respect of which the Northern Ireland rate is set by the Northern Ireland Assembly in accordance with the provisions of section 357IA, the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs shall complete a review of the effects of the changes to chargeability of trading profits to corporation tax at the Northern Ireland rate made in Schedule 7 to the Finance (No. 2) Act 2017.
• (2) A review under this section shall consider in particular the effect of those changes on the extent to which companies are based in—
• (a) Northern Ireland, and
• (b) Great Britain.
• (3) A review under this section shall also consider the effect of those changes on the extent to which the profits or losses of companies and firms are Northern Ireland profits or losses.
• (4) A review under this section shall also consider the effect on employment in—
• (a) Northern Ireland, and
• (b) Great Britain.
• (5) A report of the review under this section shall be laid before the House of Commons within one calendar month of its completion.”

The rejected new clause was accompanied by the following explanatory notice:

• This new clause requires HMRC to carry out a review after the first year of operation of the Northern Ireland rate of the effect of the changes in Schedule 7 on the location of companies in Northern Ireland and in Great Britain, the extent to which trading profits and losses are treated as subject to the Northern Ireland rate and on employment in Northern Ireland and in Great Britain.

The changes referred to provide an option for a micro, small or medium sized enterprise which does not have at least 75% of its UK employment time and costs in Northern Ireland, but has a "Northern Ireland Regional Establishment", to elect to use rules which already applied to large companies, enabling them to attribute profits and losses to their Northern Ireland, to which the Northern Ireland Corporation Tax rate applies.

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• [1] Parliament's webpage on the Finance Bill 2017-19

Debate in Parliament |