Will the new tax evasion offences make it through before Parliament is dissolved?
Theresa May called an election yesterday. Parliament will most likely vote to hold one today, and in less than two weeks, by 2nd May, according to the Leader of the House of Commons, Parliament will be dissolved and the country will head towards polling day on 8th June.
It’s taken everyone by surprise, not least those of us in the compliance space who were carefully preparing for the Criminal Finances Bill and the introduction of two new offences to tackle tax evasion.
The Criminal FInances Bill had already worked its way through most parliamentary stages. It was due to be considered by the Lords at report stage on 25th April, prior to its third reading in the Lords, scheduled for the 3rd and 8th of May, and then Royal Assent sometime after that. The least we know is that timetable has gone out the window.
There are less than six working days and counting left in this Parliament. Once the dissolution occurs, all parliamentary business stops. Generally, open legislation is stripped down to its least controversial parts and what can be passed is put onto the statute books and what can’t be is binned. It’s a process called ‘washup.’ But there are at least a dozen open Bills, all of varying levels of importance and dispute, including the Digital Economy Bill, which can easily suck up important hours of the ticking parliamentary clock. The Criminal Finances Bill will need some pretty broad agreement, and perhaps even government concessions, to be passed in time.
VinciWorks has been preparing a brand new course on tax evasion to go along with the training requirement of the Criminal Finances Bill. The new offences are aimed at corporate failure to prevent tax evasion, and our new course would help companies to train their staff on spotting tax evasion and helping to put reasonable procedures in place to defend against possible compliance failures. If the Bill fails to pass before 2nd May, then, at least for now, there will be no new offences.
When the next Parliament meets again sometime in June, the Bills that were killed can be brought back to life and will continue from where they left off. That of course all depends on the legislative agenda of the next government. If it’s business as usual, then one might expect things to remain much the same. But if things change, then who knows what might happen to the always controversial issue of tax evasion? We’ll know more in the coming days and weeks, but for now, stay in touch with VinciWorks for the latest on compliance and the general election.
