Tweet Given the government’s media blitz over the last few days you might be forgiven for thinking that Cameron was about to pull off a coup in cracking down on corporate tax avoidance at the G8. We shall see. This is a case where it pays to read the small print. Ostensibly he is trying: [...]
Posts under ‘Taxation’
Cameron’s brouhaha on corporate tax avoidance: but does he really mean it?
Jun 18th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.
Government pretends crackdown on tax avoidance with hand deliberately tied behind its back
Jun 3rd, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Tweet According to the Boston Consulting Group, Britain now has just over 1,000 ‘ultra-high net worth households’, i.e. those with more than $100m (£65m) in private financial wealth, excluding property. Much of this will be stored in tax havens, and most of it will have been filleted by expensively-paid lawyers and accountants to ensure that [...]
Tax returns of all major companies and super-rich individuals should be published
May 31st, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Tweet Progress is being made bit by bit in the fight against tax avoidance/evasion, as revealed today in the decision of the Swiss government to loosen its tight bank secrecy laws so that its banks can under US pressure, which forced one Swiss bank to close, reach settlements with the US regarding their involvement in [...]
Labour is failing on tax avoidance
May 29th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.Tweet This week’s YouGov poll for the Sunday Times makes it very clear that Labour is failing to get a clear anti-tax avoidance message across to the public. In answer to the question “In general, do you think it is acceptable or unacceptable to LEGALLY avoid paying tax?”, 62% of people (72% of Labour voters) think [...]
Good stuff on curbing corporate tax avoidance, Ed, now show us the beef!
May 21st, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Tweet ‘Make the multinationals transparent about the money they make here, how they move cash round their corporate structures, and the justification for the tax they pay, as well as their responsibilities for the kind of society we want to create’. Ed’s admirable sentiments with which the vast majority of the electorate would concur. But [...]
Who appoints these State stooges?
May 10th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Tweet In 2011 it was widely believed that Dave Hartnett, boss of HMRC, in a multi-billion offshore avoidance dispute with Vodaphone, had let off the company with some paltry payment without even consulting his lawyers. The PAC therefore instructed the National Audit Office, headed by Amyas Morse, to investigate this and 4 other dodgy deals. Before [...]
The government are keener to catch whistleblowers than tax avoiders
May 7th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Tweet The treatment of Osita Mba, the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) solicitor, is a public scandal. It was he who revealed that Dave Hartnett, former head of HMRC, had made a private deal with Goldman Sachs, sealed with a handshake, that let them off payment of interest amounting to at least £10m. This issue [...]
One rule for Goldman Sachs, and one for everyone else
May 4th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Tweet Praise be to UK Uncut. It’s only due to them that we’re now learning what really lay behind the Blair-Brown policy of ‘light regulation’, now gratefully continued by the Tories, and the world of difference between the treatment of the hyper-rich on the one hand and the defenders of the poorest on the other. [...]
HMRC let Goldman Sachs off tax to avoid “major embarrassment” to Osborne
May 2nd, 2013 by Newsdesk.Tweet In the legal case against HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) over the ‘sweetheart’ tax deal with Goldman Sachs, details have emerged of a controversial cover up to avoid political embarrassment at the heart of government. It came to light in the High Court that the former tax chief, Dave Hartnett, chose to waive the [...]
Even the posh golf clubs are into corporate tax avoidance
May 2nd, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Tweet It is reported that even the smartest member-owned golf clubs such as Royal Birkdale and Royal Lytham & St. Annes, though set up as non-profit-making organisations, have been earning a bob or two on the quiet – £2.5bn to be precise – and not paying tax on it. They do a huge trade in [...]
