A major programme to improve the way HMRC tackles tax evasion delivered £4.32bn of additional tax yield between 2006 and 2011, according to the National Audit Office, but HMRC ‘is not yet exploiting the full potential’ of new capabilities including the use of ICT systems to detect evasion.
‘Liberal Democrats are prepared to see the 50 pence top rate of income tax abolished in return for a tax on property, Vince Cable said today.
Tax experts insist that ‘most big companies have no interest in bending the rules’, The Sunday Times reported yesterday. Barclays had 'failed to sense a prevailing mood against tax avoidance’, according to the paper.
Aggressive tax planning using international ‘tax arbitrage’ is a growing concern and governments should consider introducing or revising tax laws to deny the benefits of ‘hybrid mismatch arrangements’, the OECD has concluded in a new report.
Barclays insisted that its tax arrangements were within ‘the letter and spirit’ of HMRC’s Code of Practice on Taxation for Banks after the government announced retrospective legislation to close two ‘highly abusive’ tax avoidance schemes.
Eversheds, the international law firm, announced the appointment of Sebastian Daly as a partner in its London real estate tax team. Daly joins from Clifford Chance.
‘In a letter to the Daily Telegraph, the bosses of small and medium sized firms across the country say the levy has meant they have not expanded their firms and taken on more workers.