Mark Middleditch (Allen & Overy) reviews recent tax developments affecting the City, including the latest proposals on tackling tax evasion and avoidance; the EU’s tax transparency measures; and recent cases illustrating the limits of the purposive approach.
Rather oddly the government waited until the day after the Budget to publish Tackling tax evasion and avoidance. As a largely political exercise there are some crowd pleasers here which any incoming government might be tempted to enact.
After much self-congratulation for measures already put in place by the coalition the paper makes a number of proposals on tax evasion. For offshore evaders a new strict liability criminal offence will be the subject of consultation. This means that the act of non-payment itself and not the dishonest motivation...
