The government’s efforts to tackle tax avoidance are ‘quite understandable’ but evasion and other criminal activity have a ‘far greater’ impact than legal avoidance, tax experts said in response to a new paper setting out the government’s anti-avoidance strategy.
The Treasury is consulting on possible steps to accelerate the ‘rebalancing’ of the Northern Ireland economy through the tax system.
The main option is to allow Northern Ireland to vary corporation tax rates, the Treasury said, to enable it to attract and expand private investment.
William Watson identifies the missing piece of the jigsaw to simplify the tax code and improve certainty
Next week’s Finance Bill will include legislation to reduce the main rate of corporation tax to 26% from 1 April 2011 and 25% from 1 April 2012. The small profits rate will be reduced to 20%, as announced in the June 2010 Budget, from 1 April 2011.
The government will publish a tax information and impact note for tax and NIC policy changes at the point at which the policy design is final or near final, beginning with tomorrow's Budget, David Gauke said.
The European Commission has proposed an optional ‘one-stop-shop’ system allowing companies to consolidate all profits and losses arising across the EU and file a single tax return.
Bill Dodwell on the Thin Cap GLO and the EU and national direct taxation
Andrew Green reflects with a practitioner's view on the OTS’s recommendations
John Whiting, Director of the Office of Tax Simplification, reflects on the OTS’s recommendations