As John McEnroe famously said at Wimbledon, ‘You cannot be serious?’ How can Osborne pretend he’s serious about saying ‘aggressive tax avoidance’ is ‘morally repugnant’ when a mere 2 weeks after his budget imposing a 15% stamp duty rate on tax avoiders who put expensive property in an offshore company (so that when they sell, they’re selling the company and not the property, and thus pay no stamp duty), tax lawyers in the City put up two fingers to the new rule by devising a multi-year rolling lease the value of which stays just under the £2m threshold and thus avoids tax? They make a mockery of Osborne’s moral protestations, yet he will do nothing to block this new loophole. Continue reading →