The National Audit Office (NAO) has published a report finding that many tax reliefs, cost more than expected and are used in ways either not intended by Parliament, or without bringing about the intended behaviour change.
Insurance premium tax (IPT) has now been in operation in the UK for 20 years. Daniel Lyons and David Fownes (Deloitte) look back at the IPT story so far.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) released its 18th report of the 2014/15 parliamentary session on Tuesday, titled HMRC’s progress in improving tax compliance and preventing tax avoidance.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said that the Labour Party, if elected, would bring in tough new penalties to tackle and deter tax avoidance.
HMRC has publicised its victories at the Court of Appeal against Vocalspruce Ltd, at the Upper Tribunal against Fidex Ltd, and at the First-tier Tribunal against Biffa (Jersey) Ltd, amounting to more than £100m of tax.
Mark Middleditch (Allen & Overy) provides an update of recent developments, including: the announcement of new rules on hybrid mismatches; the high-risk promoters regulations; euro conversion clauses; FATCA; and the EC investigation into the Irish tax rulings over Apple
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has published leaked documents setting out tax deals that some of the world’s largest multinational corporations struck with Luxembourg.
The ‘tax gap’ figures for 2012/13 showed that illegal activity costs the UK almost five times as much as tax avoidance. When it comes to reducing tax avoidance, argues Tony Beare (Slaughter and May), adverse publicity and the desire to maintain a good working relationship with HMRC are the most powerful drivers.
HMRC has issued a list of ‘10 things a tax avoidance scheme promoter won’t always tell you’ which sets out the risks that people face when they sign up to a tax avoidance scheme and includes not only the possible monetary costs and reputational damage of tax avoidance, but also a potential crimin
Continually tinkering with the DOTAS hallmarks risks impairing the original purpose of the disclosure regime, which was to gather information, writes Ashley Greenbank (Macfarlanes)