A new initiative to provide international auditing expertise and advice to help developing countries ‘better address tax base erosion, including tax evasion and avoidance’ has been launched by the OECD’s Informal Task Force on Tax and Development.
HMRC is organising a second public meeting this week to give people an opportunity to ask questions about the proposed Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme. A formal consultation on the measure will close on 25 May.
Five bodies representing freelancers and small businesses on HMRC’s IR35 Forum claim that new guidance on rules to counter tax avoidance via personal service companies ‘fails to take into account key elements in their advice’, according to PCG (formerly the Professional Contractors Group).
The Scotland Bill received Royal Assent on 1 May and is now the Scotland Act 2012.
Seventy-seven disclosures of tax avoidance schemes were received by HMRC in the six months to 31 March 2012, according to provisional figures released on 1 May. There were 138 disclosures in the financial year to 31 March 2012, showing a slight increase on the previous year.
‘India will delay the introduction of wide-ranging proposed tax avoidance laws by one year, in a move designed to placate international investors worried over increasingly erratic legal changes.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has warned that ‘massive’ offshore tax evasion and avoidance cause ‘serious harm to the public interest’ in Europe and elsewhere, and particularly in developing countries.
Country by country reporting of profits and taxes paid is ‘essential’ for detecting corporate tax avoidance, according to MEPs who adopted by 538 votes to 73 a resolution on ‘concrete ways to combat tax fraud and tax evasion’. There were 32 abstentions.
A common consolidated corporate tax base should be compulsory for all companies except SMEs after a transitional period, according to a resolution of the European Parliament approved last month by 452 votes to 172, with 36 abstentions.
The divide between tax professionals and tax justice campaigners on the issues of transfer pricing and country by country reporting by multinationals was laid bare at a ground-breaking ‘tax and transparency forum’ attended by more than 200 people in London yesterday.