For more than thirty years the politics of the UK and most other western democracies has been dominated by a notable and consistent adherence to a single consensus on tax issues. That persistent policy approach has been built around what has been described as the Washington Consensus. That agenda, which translated neoliberal thinking into policy prescriptions, […]
Posts Tagged ‘Tax Dodgers’
Tax havens are latter-day pirates. They should be treated accordingly
Jun 27th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.Jersey today threatens to declare independence from the UK to protect its financial interests. These “financial interests” are the historic practice of drawing in the financial activities of multinational businesses and wealthy individuals in exchange for a modest ‘rent’. This action by Jersey and numerous other tax havens provides the basis of aggressive tax avoidance […]
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Government half-measures on tax avoidance and pay not enough
Jun 22nd, 2012 by Michael Meacher.So Jimmy Carr was out of order in his K2 tax fiddle, he was in Cameron’s phrase ‘morally wrong’ for trying to avoid tax, and now he’s tweeted his apology by saying he made ‘an enormous error of judgement’ (having the previous day said defiantly “I pay what I have to and not a penny […]
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Tax avoidance now the cancer of British society
Jun 20th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.Today I am introducing a Private Member’s Bill into the Commons (having won a place in the Private Members’ Bill lottery) which will outlaw any financial transaction for which the primary purpose is tax avoidance/evasion rather than any genuine economic purpose. It will transfer the burden of proof, from HMRC having to prove that a […]
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UK Uncut takes on the Inland Revenue and Goldman Sachs on behalf of the 99%
Jun 13th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.UK Uncut has been granted leave to challenge the so-called “sweetheart” deal between HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and Goldman Sachs, which saved the bank up to £20m. UKUncuts’s case will now go to a full judicial review where its lawyers will argue that HMRC failed to carry out its legal duty to renegotiate a deal with […]
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Are there ‘sweetheart’ deals between HMRC and big business?
Jun 9th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.The victimisation of Osita Mba is upsetting. He is a revenue solicitor at HMRC who worked on the Goldman Sachs case where the latter fought for 5 years in the courts to avoid a tax liability. But when they finally lost, Dave Hartnett, the Revenue permanent secretary, reached a private deal with them in December […]
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Yes they’re all in it together
Apr 16th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.It’s a relief that even a City investor group (PIRC) is now challenging the accounts of Barclays, RBS, and HSBC, initially when the pay deal for Bob (greedy as Croesus) Diamond is put to the Barclays AGM in a fortnight’s time. It is proposed to pay him £17m, largely made up of an executive share […]
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Osborne stokes the cancer of British politics
Apr 9th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.After unveiling an anti-tax avoidance deal with the Swiss two weeks ago, the day before the budget, with the self-righteous puff “I regard tax evasion as morally repugnant”, Osborne is now under pressure to backtrack fast. What he did not say is that the tax rate he negotiated with the Swiss authorities that would be […]
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Barclays, the hypocrite bank, found out
Mar 1st, 2012 by Michael Meacher.So Barclays has now been exposed pursuing two tax avoidance schemes so “highly abusive” that this government, which gets half its donations from mega-wealthy City banks and individuals, felt obliged to take retrospective action to stamp them out. The Barclays wheeze was designed to escape payment of at least £500m in taxes by: (i) avoiding tax […]
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Offshore tax-dodging makes a farce of austerity
Jan 23rd, 2012 by Michael Meacher.A Land Registry inventory of title deeds, just published, is yet another piece of evidence revealing the hypocrisy of Osborne’s “we’re all in it together” in austerity. What it shows is that in just two central London boroughs the ownership of property worth £88.5bn has been transferred offshore to escape payment of stamp duty and […]
