‘Supporters of a financial transaction tax have a strong ally in the new French president, François Hollande, who wants to recycle the revenue raised from the so-called Tobin tax into growth-enhancing investment projects.
Senior tax officials from OECD countries met in Montreal to discuss recent ‘unintended double non-taxation’ due to the use of hybrid mismatch arrangements.
The government makes its own decisions on tax policy and does not take lectures from big business, the CBI’s Director General has told a BBC Panorama programme investigating ‘massive tax savings’ made by multinationals through transactions with Luxembourg subsidiaries.
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.