With the Eurozone tottering it may be time we signed up for some Norwegian lessons January 15, 2012 NORWAY is indeed a country of good fortune. Post World War II, the quality of living was relatively poor by Western standards, based upon the proceeds of an old-fashioned primary economy. Since the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1960s, this nation of only 4.9m has rocketed to fourth in the IMF’s league table, [...]
Educating your kids requires a plan January 15, 2012 TONY Blair said “education, education, education”, while Abba said “Money, money money”. It’s still hard to get the best of the former without a pile of the latter. Many parents are faced with massive dilemmas due to the spiralling costs of giving their children what they believe to be the best start in life. For [...]
MPs’ fury at £25bn tax owed December 19, 2011 THE TAXMAN is chasing more than £25bn from Britain’s top businesses, according to a damning report from MPs published today. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) also appears to be “too cosy” with large companies and has refused to give “straight answers” to questions, claims the Public Accounts Committee, which has produced the study on tax [...]
RAPID RESPONSES December 14, 2011 A flatter tax pitch I gratefully acknowledge the coalition’s willingness to embark on a witch-hunt of benefit cheats, but I am not convinced they have the courage to tackle tax cheats with the same vigour. A company I jointly founded some years ago was put into voluntary liquidation as a result of not being able [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 11, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES TNK-BP WARNED ON LEGAL ACTION Two of the independent directors in TNK-BP, the Russian joint venture of BP, warned the board that legal action by the company against either set of shareholders could destabilise the group, according to a letter seen by the Financial Times. In the letter addressed to Mikhail Fridman, TNK-BP’s [...]
HMRC’s use of powers to seize business assets grows four-fold November 13, 2011 HMRC has massively increased its use of powers, allowing it to seize the assets of late-paying businesses in an urgent effort to increase its tax take, a new report has revealed. Data obtained by law firm McGrigors shows that the number of times HMRC has used its powers of distraint to seize assets of late-payers [...]
Voda results robust despite euro woes November 8, 2011 THE EUROZONE crisis tainted an otherwise robust set of results for Vodafone, with a £450m writedown on its Greek business helping push profits down 11 per cent. Vodafone, facing tough comparatives against last year when it booked the sale of its minority shareholding in China Mobile, saw its revenues increase 4.1 per cent to £23.5bn, [...]
HMRC probed in Commons November 7, 2011 A TAX OFFICIAL lost their bonus following a blunder that allowed Goldman Sachs to escape a tax bill of around £10m, Parliament was told yesterday. In a hearing by MPs on the Public Accounts Committee yesterday, Dave Hartnett, permanent secretary for tax at HMRC said the error was dealt with through a staff member’s annual [...]
Taskforces to lead tax crackdown November 7, 2011 TASKFORCES are being set up to target different types of tax evasion in different regions, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) revealed yesterday. Businesses are the particular focus in London and the south east, with those failing to submit statutory returns for corporation tax, income self assessment, PAYE and VAT seen as core targets by the [...]
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA FOR LEGAL SOPRANOS November 7, 2011 BETRAYAL, revenge and murder – it was business as usual when the Magic Circle decamped to the dress circle at Sadler’s Wells to watch Allen & Overy’s modern-day reworking of Carmen set in Seville Airport. The opera, which follows last year’s staging of The Magic Flute at Glyndebourne, involved 74 of the firm’s staff past [...]