Section 376: Power to undo changes
683.This section provides a power for the Treasury to undo changes in the law made by the Act for the purpose of restoring the effect of the law to what it was immediately before 1 April 2010. It is new. A corresponding provision is in section 1324 of CTA 2009.
684.The power will not be exercised without the agreement of the Tax Law Rewrite Project’s Consultative and Steering Committees to the proposed modifications. It will make it possible for any errors made in rewriting the source legislation, or in making consequential amendments, to be corrected without recourse to a Finance Bill.
685.Subsection (2) provides that the power may not be exercised after 31 March 2013. As with section 1324 of CTA 2009, it is considered sensible to time-limit the power in this way, especially as successive Finance Acts may make it progressively more difficult to make such amendments. The time limit will provide a reasonable period for errors to come to light.
686.Subsection (4) provides that the power may be used to make provision having retrospective effect. Whether that would be appropriate would need to be considered on a case-by-case basis.