Cost of complexity: Britain’s tax relief chaos is even overwhelming HMRC November 27, 2014 HOW CAN HMRC be expected to administer Britain’s chaotic tax system if politicians keep passing so much legislation? Despite George Osborne frequently stating his preference for simpler taxes, last year’s Finance Bill was the second longest ever at 646 pages. There have only been five Finance Acts longer than 600 pages, and the coalition is [...]
The UK could be the world capital of the sharing economy if we take these steps November 25, 2014 EVERYONE seems to be talking about the “sharing economy”, and while this may not be a model that will work for every industry, it is a trend that requires attention. So much so that, in September 2014, the UK government raised the need for an independent report to examine the social and economic potential of [...]
MPs tell HRMC to speed up tax avoidance investigations after Liberty scheme failures November 18, 2014 MPs have criticised HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) for being “unacceptably slow” at taking action against tax avoidance in the UK. The public accounts committee said the government department for tax collection had failed to look into the taxes of many of those involved in the "Liberty" scheme within the given time period of [...]
“HMRC must do more, faster”: Slow action on tax avoidance is losing UK money, report claims November 17, 2014 The government department tasked with chasing tax avoidance schemes and recovering the cash is too slow, resulting in millions being lost, a report out today claims. The Public Accounts Committee looked into the process HM Revenue and Customs follows to recover tax lost through avoidance schemes and found that up to £10m from one particular [...]
Britain must do more to scale up tech firms says LoveFilm and Zoopla investor Sherry Coutu November 16, 2014 Britain is great when it comes to helping tech startups, but we lag behind many countries when it comes to scaling-up these companies to reach their full potential, a report will reveal. The Scale-Up report is to be launched today at an event at Bloomberg’s London offices by its author, the investor and entrepreneur [...]
Sainsbury’s Christmas advert, forex fines, Rosetta and the Double Donut Burger: 10 things we learned this week November 14, 2014 1. Sainsbury's has stolen the Christmas ad crown from John Lewis. Maybe. But have either of them done enough to be considered for our Christmas ad hall of fame, which includes a 1950s Coca-Cola number and the 1992 Yellow Pages classic? 2. Bankers' forex rigging was £1.1bn of bad. RBS, HSBC, UBS, JPMorgan and [...]
HMRC, FCA and PRA tell George Osborne they’ll work more closely together to share information at regular meetings after Banking Standards Review November 14, 2014 Financial regulators and HMRC have outlined plans to work more closely together in the wake of the government investigation into banking standards. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) will hold regular meetings with HMRC to better share information and expertise on “taxation, regulatory, prudential and consumer implications” that result from policy [...]
British American Tobacco whacked with £650,000 fine by HMRC for “oversupplying” Belgium cigarette market November 13, 2014 British American Tobacco (BAT) has been hit with a fine of £650,000 by HM Revenue & Customs for oversupplying cigarettes to Belgium, which has substantially lower tobacco taxes than Britain. Apparently, that causes more low-cost cigarettes to be smuggled into the UK. According to papers seen by the Wall Street Journal, it is the first [...]
City Moves for 13 November 2014 | Who’s switching jobs November 12, 2014 Pinsent Masons The law firm has announced the appointment of Meriam Alrashid as an international arbitration partner in its global construction practice in London. A fluent Arabic speaker, she joins from Crowell & Moring and has particular experience in the Middle East and North Africa. Hermes Investment Management Vincent Nobel has been appointed head of [...]
HMRC recovers record £3.65bn in unpaid taxes from avoidance schemes, evasion and fraud November 9, 2014 A record amount of unpaid tax has been recovered from avoidance schemes, evasion and fraud by HMRC’s top team of specialist investigators – up by almost a quarter in the past year, says Pinsent Masons, the international law firm. According to Pinsent Masons, the compliance yield from HMRC’s specialist investigations team hit £3.65bn in 2013/14, [...]