There are occasions when I find my own professional institute – the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales - intensely annoying. I can even understand why another outstanding accountant of my acquaintance, Tim Bush, has now quit the Institute in disgust, but I persevere with membership in the hope that one data, maybe, the
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Will Hutton said this yesterday in the Observer: It is an incidental sentence, but it brought me up short. By 2018, general government consumption will be proportionally no larger than it was in 1948. So declared the Office for Budget Responsibility in its report accompanying the autumn statement. The work of three generations in building the sinews of
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The government announced in the Autumn Statement last week that: As the next step [in tackling abuse of employment taxation], Autumn Statement 2013 announces action to prevent employers and employment intermediaries from avoiding employer NICs and circumventing their employer obligations. The government strongly supports enterprise and those who choose to work for themselves, and believes that the tax
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According to the FT: HSBC has sounded out investors about a flotation of its UK arm, in a move that would realise value from its high street banking business and address regulatory pressures. The bank has in recent weeks asked investors whether they would support the sale of a sizeable stake in the UK business. It
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There are a lot of people asking me what I would do about pensions today. So here form 2010 is my answer: Finance for the Future, a partnership between me and fellow Green New Deal member and environmentalist Colin Hines, has published a new report this weekend. Entitled ‚ ‘Making Pensions Work’ it explores the reasons
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It was said in the autumn statement that the HMRC budget was being protected from cuts. That must come as news to many in HMRC because right now thousands at 21 locations are being invited to leave the department. This copy letter, reproduced with permission, explains why: Dorothy Brown has, I know, been busy with
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Famously the UK Swiss tax agreement was supposed to generate £3 billion of tax receipts this year. Even in June 2013 the OBR was saying there were: expected capital tax receipts of £3.2 billion from the UK-Swiss tax agreement. Capital tax receipts from the agreement will flow in between now and July 2014 In that same
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The autumn statement matters. It matters because millions of people’s wellbeing in this country depends on whether or not our economy recovers. It matters to public services. It matters to those who are dependent upon the state. It matters to the next election and the future direction of this country. This statement is the battleground
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This is from the FT this morning. Tax abuse is alive and well and continuing from Ireland: A Dublin-based company at the heart of Facebook’s international tax structure used a complex tax avoidance scheme to limit its Irish corporation tax bill to €1.9m last year, despite generating turnover of €1.79bn. Facebook Ireland Limited, which employed 382 people in
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