Panama Papers: Here’s what you need to know ahead of the database release on Monday May 8, 2016 A database packed with information from the Panama Papers leak is due to be released tomorrow, providing authorities worldwide with potentially valuable leads for their investigations. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) announced that it would be launching the searchable database about a fortnight ago and wrote in a blog post that the database will contain information [...]
Low oil prices will lead to skills crisis for North Sea and mean UK does not realise full potential of oil and gas reserves April 25, 2016 A leading industry expert has raised concerns that low oil prices could dampen the long-term prospects for the North Sea, create a generational skills crisis and lead to oil being left in the ground. Alan McCrae, a partner at PwC who heads up oil and gas tax, said that unless there was a “dramatic recovery [...]
Taxman pockets roughly £87m from people who missed the tax return deadline April 25, 2016 Despite being warned about a £100 late filing penalty, it appears that some people still forgot to circle 31 January in their diary with red pen. According to statistics released today from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), 870,000 people missed the 31 January 2016 deadline for filing their tax return online. [...]
HMRC launches consultation on simpler tax of life insurance bonds April 22, 2016 Life insurance bonds will be taxed in a simpler way after HMRC launched a consultation into how they should be treated. The bonds are popular investments but have a notoriously complicated tax structure. They allow people to put money away, watch the capital grow and also take out regular chunks if they want to. But bond [...]
HMRC launches new consultation into tax evasion laws for corporates, as Panama Papers scandal rumbles on April 17, 2016 HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has today opened a consultation seeking input on a new offence aimed at businesses which fail to prevent tax evasion. The consultation concerns draft legislation published last December, which would introduce a new offence for corporates that fail to take adequate measures to prevent those working on their behalf from committing, [...]
Britain’s nineteenth century tax system is breaking under twenty-first century strains April 15, 2016 Politicians have noticed (perhaps belatedly) that they have been fiddling with a nineteenth century tax system while taxpayers have been operating in the twenty-first century. The existing tax system is a result of years of tinkering, reflecting the influence of political views and special interest lobbying. This has created vast complexity. We could look to [...]
MPs slam HM Revenue & Customs for not doing enough to tackle tax fraud April 15, 2016 A report released today has criticised the UK's tax authority for not making headway in the battle against tax fraud. The report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said there had been limited progress made in reducing the losses from tax fraud, which costs HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) around £16bn per year in uncollected taxes. The PAC [...]
Panama Papers scandal: Law firm Mossack Fonseca Panama offices raided April 13, 2016 The Panama office of the law firm at the centre of the Panama Papers scandal has been raided by the authorities, it was revealed in the early hours of this morning. Panama's attorney general's office issued a statement revealing that it had carried out a raid on Mossack Fonseca's office to search for evidence of [...]
Brits are sleep-walking into an inheritance tax nightmare April 13, 2016 If you've been fortunate enough to accumulate significant wealth during your lifetime, then you still face one major headache: you can’t take it with you. Yes, estate planning is in the headlines once again, with the news that David Cameron’s parents wanted to pass on more of their wealth to him, rather than leave it to [...]
Multinationals including Facebook, Google, and Amazon could be forced to make their EU tax documents public April 12, 2016 Multinationals such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook are in danger of being forced by the European Commission to disclose in exactly which European Union countries they pay tax and how much. Under the proposals, announced this afternoon by EU Financial Services Commissioner Jonathan Hill, all multinational companies with a turnover greater than €750m (£600m) would have to comply [...]