Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:51 pm on 28 June 2016.
First of all, the taxes that we will look to introduce will be appropriate for Wales, as we see it. Clearly, they will need robust anti-avoidance measures within the legislation, and Members will be able to see the legislation and what is contained in it when the legislation is introduced.
In terms of learning from Scotland, yes, it’s clear to me that you need to have the revenue-raising authority in place to ensure that the tax can be raised, or certainly as soon as possible afterwards. The Member has already mentioned the difficulties that Scotland faced in that regard.
In terms of communication with stakeholders, what we know—those who need to know about the landfill transaction tax when it’s introduced should be notified through their professional associations through their continuous professional development requirements. There is a duty on them anyway to assure themselves that they fully understand the new taxation system. But, of course, we will continue to keep and review the most effective ways of communicating the changes. As far as the public are concerned, they are used to stamp duty, so they are used to the idea of a duty or tax being paid when property transactions take place, but it’s obviously important to make sure that the professionals understand how the tax will work and, particularly, how it is to be collected and the rules governing that tax. We’ll obviously make sure that everything is in place that can be put in place to ensure that estate agents, for example, and accountants, to give two examples, are aware of the changes.