We must ditch unfair loopholes – and then cut tax overall November 18, 2012 BRITAIN’S corporation tax system is broken. It is arbitrary, opaque, incomprehensible and unfair. At best, it is uncompetitive compared with other countries, such as Ireland; at worst it is a complete nightmare of complications and distorted incentives. Britain’s tax system is one of the worst things about the UK: It needs to be smashed up [...]
Taxing times for Britain’s start-ups November 18, 2012 YOU’VE found your niche, you’ve written your business plan, you’ve arranged suitable financing. Surely that’s the hard part done? All that remains is the difficult work of growing your company, making your sales, and pleasing your customers. Unfortunately, it’s not true. Before a business is even registered, every entrepreneur becomes enmeshed in Britain’s complex, opaque, [...]
We need a new entrepreneurial revolution to rescue Britain November 15, 2012 IT is all too easy to despair about everything that is wrong with Britain. But one ray of light is our slow-burning, yet increasingly profound shift towards becoming a more entrepreneurial society. Britain counts 4.8m private firms, 99.9 per cent of which are small to medium-sized businesses (SMEs). Most are micro businesses. The rise of [...]
Taxman to pay out billions to multinationals November 14, 2012 PROMINENT UK-based multinational firms are on the cusp of receiving enormous payouts from the Treasury after a European court yesterday ruled in their favour on a landmark tax case. Lawyers now say the total bill owed by the government could reach billions of pounds, depending on how many applications follow the decision. In a test [...]
HMRC crackdown raises £21bn as companies feel the pressure November 11, 2012 HMRC’s total yield from investigations into tax avoidance and evasion jumped by a third to £21bn in the year to March – the highest level on record, according to research published today by UHY Hacker Young. That compared with just £16bn the previous year, while in 2004-5 – the first tax year handled by the [...]
UK house prices fall in October November 6, 2012 UK house prices fell 0.7 per cent in October, Halifax said today. On an annual basis, property values fell 1.7 per cent. In the three months to October, prices were 1.2 per cent lower than in the previous quarter, the fifth successive decline, Halifax said. Martin Ellis, housing economist at the lender, today said: “The [...]
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 [...]