I have had an ongoing battle with the IASB on IFRS 8. This standard moves accounting into uncharted waters that only the US have looked at before (and not without some difficulties arising for them on the way). Worse, it abandons any commitment to accounting on the basis of geography which breaks the links between [...]
The UK has always been loath to define what an accountant is, which has considerably annoyed some in the ‘qualified’ profession. Now the issue has assumed a degree of importance.
I’d suggest following my post this morning that the term might be defined as ‘ditherers lacking a moral compass’, but suspect that even I might be [...]
It’s been widely assumed that the data the Revenue is using as the basis of checking declarations under the UK ‘tax amnesty’ is that supplied to them by the leading five UK banks, secured under what are called s20 notices, i.e. against their will.
Well placed sources, whose information I have no reason to doubt, tell [...]
It may have occurred to one or two readers of this blog that the accusation has occasionally been made that I am opinionated. Too true I am, especially when it comes to accountancy practice. In fact, I’m of the opinion that an accountancy practitioner has to be very opinionated indeed. The reason is simple. That’s [...]
Full marks to Andrew Goodall for spotting the web site of UK Trade and Investment, a government sponsored site on which there is a blatant article promoting the UK as a tax haven, admitted;y written by PWC. It says:
This may come as a surprise to many of you but whilst the UK lacks the climate [...]
Something to think about from the FT:
The combined earnings of the world’s top 25 hedge fund managers of almost $15bn exceeded the national income of Jordan last year
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It looks like Microsoft’s love affair with Ireland is fleeting. According to the Irish Independent (behind a registration wall) in the past two years Microsoft’s Irish subsidiary has paid dividends totalling €5bn to its Seattle-based parent. That’s despite making profits less than that at €2bn pre tax a year. The tax charge is running at [...]
There’s an interesting discussion of insider dealing in the City in the FT today. Take this as some indication of the flavour:
Many have found the FSA’s most recent study into informed trading laughable after it showed that less than a quarter of takeover announcements in 2005 were preceded by share price movements that indicated possible [...]
The Observer seeks to report objectively. As such, as part of their coverage of the domicile rules they gaveJohn Jay, New Star Asset Management’s development director, an opportunity to defend the presence of non-domiciled billionaires in London.
He made three arguments. First, billionaires spend money here, injecting wealth into our economy. Because they demand the best [...]
Nick Shaxson, the TJN media officer has a new book out ‘Poisoned Wells: The Dirty Politics of African Oil’. He’s talked about it in the US edition of Harper’s magazine. Perhaps the most telling quotes are these:
In America, the idea of “no taxation without representation” underpins democracy and capitalism. But in Angola, rulers tax oil [...]
