Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 10:

In page 6, lines 43 and 44, to delete "subsection (6)" and substitute "subsection (9)".

Amendments Nos. 10 and Nos. 26 to 29, inclusive, introduce consequential changes to references in the Bill as published as a result of the introduction by amendment No. 25 of three new subsections. Amendment No. 25 introduces a number of changes to the Bill as published with a view to strengthening it and making clear the rights of administrators to dispose of or appropriate assets of the pension scheme for the purposes of paying the levy and with a view to protecting them against any possible legal challenges in that regard.

This reflects concern that administrators with responsibility for calculating and deducting the levy could be placed in an untenable position if the trustees who engage them were to instruct them not to pay the levy. Amendment No. 25, therefore, introduces three new subsections to section 125B of the Stamp Duties Consolidation Act 1999. The new subsection (5)(a) gives a chargeable person the right to dispose of or appropriate scheme assets for the purposes of meeting the amount of the levy payable. The new subsection (5)(b) provides that where a chargeable person who is not a trustee, for example, a life officer in respect of insurance contracts held as assets of a scheme, pays the levy through the disposal or appropriation of scheme assets, the trustee must also allow that course of action and the charge of a person is acquitted and discharged of as regards such disposals. The new subsection (6) protects a chargeable person from any court action by reason of having paid the levy by way of disposal or appropriation of scheme assets. The new subsection (7)(a) puts beyond doubt that the chargeable person and the trustees of a scheme are both jointly and severally liable for payment of the levy. The new subsection (7)(b) provides for the same joint liability in the particular circumstances of small, one-member, self-assessed administrative schemes. I commend the amendments to the House.

See this speech in context