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)
HMRC issued over 600 accelerated payment notices since August to users of marketed tax avoidance schemes, covering tax amounting to £250m. HMRC aims, by the end of March 2016, to have delivered 43,000 such notices, covering £7.1bn.
Heather Self (Pinsent Masons) asks if this the end for the ‘double Irish’ structure
The Irish finance minister, Michael Noonan, announced in his Budget statement on 14 October that the government is putting a stop to ‘double Irish’ corporate tax avoidance arrangements – such as those utilised by multinational corporations Apple and Google – by requiring all companies registered