Welsh Rates of Income Tax

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:35 pm on 11 March 2020.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 2:35, 11 March 2020

I do think that any decisions should obviously be based on the best possible evidence, and this is one of the areas that we can explore in further detail in Finance Committee tomorrow, where I'll be giving evidence on what the potential impact might be of different exchange rates over the side of borders in the UK. But of course, we don't have much or any evidence, really, within the UK at the moment, because the Scots have only been collecting their own Scottish rates of income tax in recent years, and the first outturn data is due shortly. So, we actually don't have that evidence base to explore in detail. We can look at other areas of the world—parts of Canada, for example, have different rates of income tax in different areas—but those behavioural impacts I don't think will necessarily be read across. But as I say, there's lots of opportunity to discuss that in more detail in committee.

In terms of the Chancellor's announcement about a Treasury presence here in Wales, we don't have any detail as to what that might entail. It could be additional staff, perhaps, at the HMRC building. We're not sure what the detail is, but obviously we will be exploring that. We're really keen to work closely with HMRC and Treasury, because it's really important that we share information and ideas in order to give the best possible service to people in Wales. So, we look forward to more information on that posting. My only slight nervousness about it is the fact that we didn't hear anything today about the replacement of European funding, and of course we were hoping to hear a little bit about the shared prosperity fund. Now, whether or not the Chancellor sees a role potentially for that Treasury presence in administering that fund is something that causes us a little bit of nervousness, but we look forward to exploring it in further detail.