Five leading tax professionals, including HMRC's Judith Knott, took part in a roundtable discussion on UK tax competitiveness. Much of the discussion, chaired by John Overs, concerned CFC reform and the potential ‘gateway’ test to filter cases out of the regime.
Fifty-three disclosures of tax avoidance schemes were received by HMRC in the six months to 30 September 2011. There were 131 disclosures in the financial year to 31 March 2011, and 189 in the previous year.
Three quarters of private businesses interviewed by PwC for a recent survey said the UK tax regime was unsupportive of enterprise, the firm announced.
There was little in the Cannes summit declaration to cheer proponents of a global tax on financial transactions.
Last week’s Cannes summit of G20 leaders offered ‘some limited hope’ for financial transparency and meaningful action on tax evasion and aggressive avoidance, according to campaigners.
Can George Osborne pull it off in his Autumn Statement on 29 November?
President Sarkozy of France is prepared to do ‘everything possible’ to get the G20 to move towards the adoption of a financial transaction tax, The Times reported ahead of this week’s G20 summit in Cannes.
‘One of Britain’s biggest companies may be forced to move abroad if the Government does not abandon the new higher rate of income tax ... Paul Walsh, the chief executive of Diageo, said the 50p rate threatened to cause “long term damage” to Britain’s “competitive edge”.
The Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has called for a new tax on financial transactions and proposed the creation of a global authority to regulate financial markets. International institutions must be reformed to favour effective monetary and financial systems, it said.