Ireland to fight tax harmony by the back door March 16, 2011 IRELAND is to fiercely oppose what its Prime Minister Enda Kenny has called an EU attempt at “harmonisation of taxes by the back door”. Proposals published by the European Commission (EC) yesterday aim to offer companies a single set of rules for calculating their corporate tax across the whole EU. But the proposals have been [...]
Japan counts the cost of a truly horrific tragedy March 14, 2011 SLOWLY but surely, more horror stories are emerging from the rubble that is Tsunami-hit Northern Japan. The death toll will undoubtedly be many orders of magnitude higher than the few thousand so far confirmed by the authorities, while the big issue last night was the extremely serious problem at several Japanese nuclear power plants. While [...]
Begbies lowers its outlook March 10, 2011 British restructuring specialist Begbies Traynor said it lowered its expectations for full-year results due to a fall in demand for its tax planning services, sending its shares down eight per cent. The company also said restructuring of its insolvency, tax and support areas was expected to cost about £3m for the year ending 30 April. [...]
Time to tackle our terrible tax code March 3, 2011 AMAZINGLY, the world’s fastest talker can speak 637 words aloud a minute. Yes, seriously. The record-holder is a Londoner called Steve Woodmore, who has featured repeatedly in the Guinness Book of Records. Tolstoy’s War and Peace comes in at a hefty 1,204 pages; it would therefore take 12 and a half hours for our record-holder [...]
Time to tackle our terrible tax code March 2, 2011 AMAZINGLY, the world’s fastest talker can speak 637 words aloud a minute. Yes, seriously. The record-holder is a Londoner called Steve Woodmore, who has featured repeatedly in the Guinness Book of Records. Tolstoy’s War and Peace comes in at a hefty 1,204 pages; it would therefore take 12 and a half hours for our record-holder [...]
Why gazelles and giants both matter March 1, 2011 SHOULD you work for a big company or a small one? To me, the answer is simple: the smaller, nimbler and the more entrepreneurial the firm, the better. But as figures out yesterday demonstrate, there is a reason why many people would prefer to work for larger institutions. The top 100 firms in the UK [...]
BP sues HMRC for mistaken tax payment February 27, 2011 BP has brought a lawsuit against the UK government to try and reclaim taxes it paid “by mistake” in 1999, City A.M. can confirm. The oil giant is claiming almost £300m in refunds, interest and compensation for paying the controversial 1.5 per cent stamp duty reserve tax on its purchase of ARCO in 1999. BP [...]
UK property market stagnant February 23, 2011 The UK property market is still stalled, according to figures from the British Bankers’ Association. The BBA said mortgages approved by its members in January for home buyers were 29 per cent lower than a year ago. They approved just 28,932 loans for house purchase, although this was slightly higher than in December. Meanwhile property [...]
U-turn over bonus taxes February 21, 2011 THE GOVERNMENT has retreated from plans to tax deferred bank bonuses. New rules would have forced bankers to pay tax when a reward package was agreed, rather than when they cashed in on their bonus. Yet HMRC last night confirmed the measure, drawn up for chancellor George Osborne’s budget, will be scrapped. Companies had warned [...]
Coalition losing its way on tax wars February 20, 2011 IT is starting to look as if the British government has completely lost the ability to fight back against its critics, especially when it comes to tax. Instead, it keeps trying to appease them, attempting to move to the left of Labour on the issue and failing to understand that such a strategy is doomed [...]