The Finance Act

View the full text of the Finance (No.2) Act 2005

Summary of Finance Bills and Acts issued in 2005

Timeline

Debates on the Finance Bill 2005 by House of Commons Standing Committee A
1st-21st sittings, May to June 2006

TaxGuide 4/06 Finance Bill 2005 - Open Day Discussions on 'Avoidance Involving Tax Arbitrage' and 'Avoidance Involving Financial Arrangements [Link to Library catalogue]
Tax Guidance note that is the agreed note of a meeting on 6 June 2005 between HM Revenue and Customs and HM Treasury and Representative Bodies including the Tax Faculty of the ICAEW.

TaxGuide 3/06 Finance (No. 2) Act 2005 Formerly Finance Bill of Summer 2005
Tax Guidance note containing the text of replies from HMRC issued in February 2006 to representations published as TAXREPs 26/05 and 29/05 submitted in May 2005 to the Paymaster General by the Tax Faculty of the ICAEW commenting on the Finance Bill of Summer 2005.

Finance (No.2) Act 2005
Full text of the Finance (No.2) Act 2005, which gained royal assent on 20th July 2005, was made available online from HMSO Online: Acts of the UK Parliament 2005on 20th July 2005.

Minutes of Proceedings - House of Lords
Minutes for Wednesday 20th July 2005 state that the Lord Chancellor notified the Queen's Assent to the Finance (No. 2) Act.

Official Report of the House of Lords (Hansard)
Includes the Finance Bill readings and debates in the following editions:

• 19th July 2005 (673/35) - second reading, third reading and EAC report.

Finance Bill - Amendments to be debated in the House of Lords

Ten Tenets Towards a Better Tax System campaign
Launched by the ICAEW Tax Faculty arguing that the tax system should be certain, properly targeted, subject to proper consultation and be fair and reasonable. The Tax Faculty has highlighted the phenomenal increase in tax legislation over the past twenty-five years recording a 54% increase in the number of pages in the Finance Acts in the last five years alone and a threefold increase since the early 80s.

Finance Bill 2005
Full text of the Finance Bill 2005 as brought from the Commons and ordered to be printed in the House of Lords on 7th July 2005. The full text was published online on July 7th 2005 in PDF and HTML formats as part of the online catalogue of Public Bills before Parliament on the United Kingdom Parliament website.

Article published on 6th July 2005 discussing the report from the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee. The article states that the report 'broadly supports HM Revenue & Customs in its battle against tax avoidance schemes'.

The Finance Bill 2005
Report from the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee on the Finance Bill 2005. The report (HL 13-I) was published on 4th July 2005 and was made available in HTML and PDF formats through the committee's reports page.

Official Report of the House of Commons (Hansard)
Includes the Finance Bill debates in the following editions:

• 6th July 2005 (436/29)

Finance Bill - Amendments to be debated in the House of Commons

Finance Bill 2005 debate the possible abolition of the section 765 Treasury consents (Tax Faculty) - article published on the Tax Faculty (ICAEW) website on 9th July 2005 reporting on a proposal to repeal section 765 ICTA 1988 made in the Standing Committee debates on 30th June 2005.

Finance Bill in Standing Committee B
Archive of debates in the House of Commons Standing Committee B on the Finance Bill 2005 (21st June-30th June 2005). An archive of Standing Committee Proceedings for the Finance Bill 2005 and the Amendment Paper as at Thursday 30th June 2005 (Standing Committee B) are also available to accompany the debates.

Official Report of the House of Commons (Hansard)
Includes the Finance Bill debates in the following editions:

• 13th June 2005 (435/15) - selected clauses and schedule considered by a committee of the whole house.
• 7th June 2005 (434/12) - second reading.
• 25th May 2005 (434/9) - first reading.

New Finance Bill published (AccountingWeb)
Article published on Accounting Web on May 26th 2005 reporting on the publication of the Finance Bill 2005.

Finance Bill 2005 (HMRC)
Dedicated section of the HM Revenue & Customs website which includes explanatory notes on clauses, technical notes, regulatory impact assessments and other documents relating to the Finance Bill. The collection of documents available on the site includes draft regulations on tax avoidance.

Explanatory notes and clauses: Finance Bill 2005 (HM Treasury)
Explanatory notes and clauses to the Finance Bill 2005 are available to download in PDF format from the Treasury website. A set of lobby notes are also available to download in PDF format.

Finance Bill 2005
Full text of the Finance Bill 2005 as introduced to the House of Commons on 26th May 2005. The full text was published online on May 26th 2005 in PDF and HTML formats as part of the online catalogue of Public Bills before Parliament on the United Kingdom Parliament website, alongside the full text of the Explanatory Notes: Finance Bill 2005. The publication of the Finance Bill was announced in the press release Publication of the Finance Bill 2005 from the Treasury on 26th May 2005.

The Paymaster General (Dawn Primarolo) supplied a written Ministerial Statement to the Commons on Thursday 19th May stating that the Finance Bill will be published on Thursday 26 May. The full text of the statement was published in Hansard (Volume No. 434, Part No. 6) on 19th May 2005.

Official Report of the House of Commons (Hansard)
Paul Boateng, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, told the House of Commons on 6th April that, if re-elected, the next Labour Government would introduce another Finance Bill in 2005 (Hansard, 432-64: Column 1432):

The Government believe that these measures and others that were included in the original Finance Bill presented to the House are essential for an effective, principled, targeted and fair tax system. It is therefore our full intention to introduce a second Finance Bill after the election should it be the wish of the British people in which the measures not included in this revised version will be brought back. We will, of course, aim to ensure that the statutory dates for these measures will continue to apply, as announced in the Budget.

Articles and books in the Library collection

• View a list of articles and books in our collection on the Finance Act 2005

Some articles anticipated that this bill would be described as Finance Bill (No.3) 2005 and referred to this as such, however the bill was issued as 'Finance Bill 2005' (the same name given to the bill published in March 2005 and abandoned in April 2005). It is important to be aware that there are two bills with the same name and that articles published prior to 26 May 2005 will most likely be referring to the bill published in March 2005.

To find out how you can borrow books from the Library please see our guide to book loans.

You can obtain copies of articles or extracts of books and reports by post or email through our document supply service.

Archive

The Library holds an extensive collection of Finance Acts (from the 19th century onwards), Finance Bills (from 1951 onwards), debates on the Finance Bill as recorded in Hansard, and Standing Committee Debates on the Finance Bills. Alongside this you can also find many publications from the ICAEW and other bodies on the Finance Bills and Acts.

For full details of our holdings in this area, see our guide to Finance Acts and Bills in the Library collection.

We also maintain an online archive of links and resources for Finance Acts 1980–1995 and for Finance Acts 1996–.