Osborne pledges joint action over corporate tax avoidance November 5, 2012 GEORGE Osborne vowed to clamp down on corporate tax avoidance yesterday, calling for “concerted international co-operation to strengthen international standards for corporate tax regimes”. The chancellor’s statement, delivered in tandem with German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble at a G20 meeting in Mexico yesterday, came as officials from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) were grilled by [...]
Public Accounts Committee set to grill HMRC bosses at hearing November 4, 2012 THE PUBLIC Accounts Committee today opens a probe into tax receipts, with top HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) officials to be grilled ahead of the committee questioning Starbucks and Google. Lin Homer, the chief executive of HMRC, will face the committee this afternoon, as will other members of the department. HMRC faced criticism over the [...]
HMRC taken to European court over ebook VAT October 28, 2012 THE GOVERNMENT may be forced to scrap VAT on ebooks if a legal challenge from a London law firm is successful. Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), acting on behalf of an unnamed client, is challenging HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) over its decision to charge the standard 20 per cent rate of VAT on ebooks while [...]
Overseas tax collectors aim for UK workers October 28, 2012 OVERSEAS governments are increasingly likely to target tax evasion by UK-based foreign nationals, according to figures released today. HMRC received 1,852 requests for information about individuals from overseas tax authorities in the 2011-12 financial year, according to law firm Pinsent Masons. This is an 18 per cent increase on the previous year and is driven [...]
Cameron seeks action on firms that avoid UK corporation tax October 24, 2012 DAVID Cameron yesterday told the House of Commons that he was “not happy” with the level of corporate tax avoidance in the UK and urged HMRC to re-examine the current situation. His comments follow a spate of reports that high-profile firms – such as eBay, Facebook and Google – pay little UK corporation tax. “This [...]
Tax gap shrinks but higher VAT limits revenues October 18, 2012 THE TAX gap narrowed as a proportion of total tax liabilities in the 2010-11 tax year, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HRMC) said yesterday (see graph, below), despite widening in absolute terms. The proportion of total estimated tax liabilities the taxman missed slipped from 7.1 per cent to 6.7 per cent, which HMRC touts as impressive compared to [...]
MPs to examine Starbucks tax October 17, 2012 Two parliamentary committees are due to quiz tax officials about how Starbucks was able to avoid paying tax on £1.2bn of sales since 2009. MPs said reports that showed Starbucks had been telling investors its UK unit was highly profitable while telling UK authorities the unit was loss making, and so not liable for tax, [...]
Whitehall in property overspend October 16, 2012 INEFFICIENT government departments are overspending heavily on office space, a report from the Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA) claimed today, wasting hundreds of millions of pounds. The Treasury spent £5,324 on property per full-time equivalent worker (FTE), compared to just £1,046 per FTE at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the TPA said, calculating that if all [...]
HMRC tightens screw on expat workers in City October 14, 2012 THE TAXMAN raised an extra £20m from investigations into foreign workers in the City last year compared with two years earlier, by applying the rules more strictly, according to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) data analysed by law firm Pinsent Masons. HMRC received £117.2m from its expat team’s compliance work in 2011-12, on top of [...]
Lack of capital and onerous HMRC rules are restraining tech start-ups October 11, 2012 THE chancellor’s announcement this week that employees could get a stake in their companies in exchange for waiving certain employment rights was a rare flash of creativity from the Treasury. But it will come as no surprise if, in a year’s time, the opposition starts impishly asking how many businesses have made use of the [...]