Mr Alan Mak (Havant) (Con):...My hon. Friend is making a very good
speech about the changing nature of the economy, particularly in
relation to the rise of the Gig economy. Will he join me in
welcoming the review by Matthew Taylor about how we can tax both
the individuals and the companies operating in the Gig
economy to make sure that we strike that fair balance between
taxation and innovation in our economy and our employment market?
Kit Malthouse (North West Hampshire)...Request free trial
Mr (Havant) (Con):...My hon.
Friend is making a very good speech about the changing nature of
the economy, particularly in relation to the rise of
the Gig
economy. Will he join me in welcoming the review by
about how we can tax both
the individuals and the companies operating in the Gig
economy to make sure that we strike that fair balance
between taxation and innovation in our economy and our employment
market?
(North West Hampshire)
(Con):...Finally, I want to say something about the
overall tenor of the Bill. It has become clear to me over the last
three or four Finance Bills that we in this House will increasingly
struggle to tax a changing economy. We have seen in the discussions
about national insurance and business rates that because of the
changing nature of business, the standard Whitehall way of taxing
the world will not last that much longer. We are moving into a
world of cloud computing, the Gig economy, non-domiciled businesses and
cashless businesses that operate from third or fourth countries.
All those things will be difficult for us to tax, and one of our
challenges over the next Parliament will be to think more radically
about how to deal with the changing nature of our economy and how
to tax it to pay for the things we need...
(Aberdeen North)
(SNP):..The hon. Member for North West Hampshire (Kit
Malthouse) talked about the Gig economy, and I get that the Government
need to find a different way to tax it due to the avoidance of
normal tax routes. However, we need to find a different way to
ensure that young people who find themselves working in
the Gig
economy have a measure of stability in their
lives and can continue to be able to pay money that they owe, such
as rent, in order to finance what is a reasonable lifestyle, rather
than a particularly comfortable one...
(Stalybridge and Hyde)
(Lab/Co-op):..Undoubtedly, we must change our approach to
how we treat employment in the 21st century, but the Government
seem to be firing unsuccessfully at a moving target. This change in
approach comes far too late and, in our opinion, has the wrong
focus. The rise of the Gig economy has brought opportunities
for some, but challenges and exploitation for others. Flexibility
and independence have been highly valued advantages for some
workers, but self-employment has also been abused by unscrupulous
employers as a means to reduce their tax bill and to avoid giving
contractors the rights and entitlements of employees. So far, the
Government’s only answer has been to propose punishing the
employees by increasing taxes on them, not to consider the rights
and obligations of both sides of this equation...
The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Jane
Ellison):..Although I was not in the Chamber at the time,
I believe that my hon. Friend the Member for North West Hampshire
(Kit Malthouse) made a typically robust speech in which he
supported all measures to promote investment. He talked about
science, the need to encourage entrepreneurs, and the challenge of
taxing the Gig
economy, which the Chancellor has acknowledged to be
one of the strategic challenges facing not just our economy but
developed economies throughout the OECD area. We are contributing
to the international debate on that subject. There is more to be
said about it, but measures in the Bill begin to address, for
example, how some online trading platforms deliver in terms of VAT.
That missing VAT represents one of the big parts of the tax gap,
and we hope that there will be widespread support for our
measures...
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