According to the Financial Times (22 June), plans to recruit dozens of new judges have been drawn up to cope with a wave of litigation expected in response to a £7bn crackdown on tax avoidance that starts next month.
Simon Yeo and Billal Malik consider the judgment in St Matthews (West) Ltd and others v HMRC on the legality of retroactive legislation.
HMRC has strengthened its organisational approach to tax avoidance by creating a new Counter-Avoidance Directorate. We talk to David Richardson, its first director, about its operation
Do the accelerated payment proposals to tackle mass marketed tax avoidance go too far? Jolyon Maugham and Sophie Dworetzsky set out opposing views
Retrospective legislation and ECHR
The cut in the top rate of income tax from 50% to 45% set up a tax avoidance opportunity. The numbers suggest plenty took advantage of it, David Smith reports
HMRC’s Fast facts online publication trumpets ‘record revenues’ for the UK, but the department should be careful in the way it puts its message across, writes Andrew Hubbard
HMRC has published a guidance note on FB 2014 (Part 5 and Schs 30–32), promoters of tax avoidance schemes. It contains a flowchart and examples. The guidance explains that the objectives of the regime are to:
Few advisers will be surprised at the First-tier Tribunal’s rejection of the highly artificial ‘blue box’ tax planning scheme. David Whiscombe examines the decision which provides a useful summary of the current position on the Ramsay principle
Nigel Doran analyses the 147 page tribunal decision, which has attracted so much recent media coverage.