Banks told to comply with tax reforms June 29, 2009 BANKS will be expected to manage their tax affairs in a way that is consistent with the government’s aim to crack down on tax avoidance, under plans laid out by the Treasury in a consultation document on its new code of practice on tax for banks. The voluntary code aims to ensure that banks “comply [...]
Q & A : CODE OF PRACTICE ON TAX June 29, 2009 Q.What is the objective of the code?A.The government wants banks to “comply with the spirit, as well as the letter, of tax law”.Effectively, this places the onus on banks not to deny the government tax revenue. Q.What will banks be required to do?A.Banks will have to have a formal, documented strategy on tax, with directors [...]
Banks await new tax guidelines June 28, 2009 The Treasury will announce a new framework of guidelines on tax avoidance tomorrow, with the publication of its code of practice for banks. The code, which will be voluntary, will see banks agree to abide by the “spirit” of the code, or face being named and then investigated by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Lenders [...]
UK government owed 17bn June 9, 2009 The UK government was owed £17.3bn in outstanding tax, interest and penalties as of 31 March 2008, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said yesterday. An HMRC spokesperson said that the report is not a reflection of HMRC debt activity as it stands – things have moved on and HMRC has made even [...]
Public Sector must try harder to please consumer July 15, 2008 Public services have been having a bad time recently, with data disks going missing, concerns about MRSA in hospitals and intense dissatisfaction with the move to fortnightly bin collections by many local authorities. It’s hardly surprising then that only one in five people in the UK believe public services are generally well run. Most of [...]