David Gauke, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, said that to remove any doubt about a tax avoidance scheme's effectiveness, legislation had been changed in relation to the following numbers of disclosed schemes since 2005:
A petition calling for government action to ‘identify those avoiding and evading tax’ has attracted almost 5,000 signatures.
The United Kingdom would ‘easily’ take Switzerland’s place at number one in the Financial Secrecy Index if the ‘British network of secrecy jurisdictions’ were considered, according to an influential campaign group.
Chris Morgan considers recent changes in the international tax arena, including UK developments, recent proposals for a financial transactions tax, and the Dutch 2012 Tax Plan
Proposed changes to the rules allowing taxpayers to set business losses against income or capital gains are ‘unworkable, disproportionate and unfair’, according to the Chartered Institute of Taxation.
The proposed treatment of disguised remuneration for national insurance contributions purposes would impose ‘impossible and unreasonable obligations’ on employers, according to the ICAEW Tax Faculty.
Accountancy firms were responsible for 67 of the 113 direct tax disclosures made to HMRC under the disclosure of tax avoidance schemes regime during the year to 31 March 2011, according to figures released in response to a freedom of information request.
Detailed proposals for reform of the controlled foreign companies regime do not reflect the government’s ‘high level aims’, according to the Chartered Institute of Taxation.
There is a strong argument for pumping extra funds into HMRC’s efforts to reduce the tax gap, according to a leading firm of accountants and business advisers.