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Finance Bill 2017: largest ever

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On 20 March, the government published Finance Bill 2017, properly known as Finance (No 2) Bill of the current parliamentary session. The CIOT wasted no time in confirming that the Bill’s ‘mammoth’ 762 pages made it the longest ever, knocking into second place the 686-page Finance Bill of 2012.

CIOT tax policy director, John Cullinane, commented: ‘This rate of change and quantity of additional legislation will make life more complex for taxpayers and tax advisers alike’.

The Bill’s 135 clauses and 29 schedules contain a number of measures added since the draft Bill in December. These include: pensions overseas transfer charge; trading and property business income; making tax digital; disguised remuneration; settlements and transfer of assets abroad; soft drinks industry levy; transactions in UK land; and social investment tax relief.

On the same day, the government published ten new consultations and calls for evidence, and six response documents from earlier consultations, together with a number of pieces of guidance and draft secondary legislation.

John Cullinane dared to hope that the latest Bill ‘will be remembered as the last hurrah of the days when Finance Bills weighed in at heavier than a family-sized turkey’. We shall see.

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