Accountancy Age has reported that the Tories are confused by Alistair Darling’s call for a review of the off balance sheet finance of banks at the Labour Party conference.
Justine Greening, a shadow Treasury minister, said:
It’s not clear what Mr Darling has in mind. We will have to wait and find out specifically what he feels [...]
I was amused by this in the Guardian this morning in a discussion on the domicile rule:
Accountants have estimated that if 20% of private equity businessmen left the country if the practice ended, Britain would still be better off by £4.3bn, equivalent to more than a penny off income tax.
I admit I have yet to [...]
But sure as heck think about doing it to whoever is at the podium…..
I loved this from today’s Scotsman:
SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Speak no evil, hear no evil”, url: “http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2007/09/27/speak-no-evil-hear-no-evil/” });
The Guardian has reported that:
Gordon Brown yesterday announced that he will close some of the tax loopholes enjoyed by private equity companies in the pre-budget report due to be published next month on the same day as the comprehensive spending review.
It also notes he said that:
Private equity will be dealt within the PBR. I can [...]
Alan Greenspan was interviewed recently by Jon Stewart on US Television. Amongst the things he said was:
I’ve been dealing with these big mathematical models of forecasting the economy, and I’m looking at what’s going on in the last few weeks. … If I could figure out a way to determine whether or not people are [...]
I’ve been sent the following press release:
Washington, D.C., Sept. 26, 2007 - The Securities and Exchange Commissiontoday announced the institution of a settled enforcement action againstBristow Group Inc., a Houston-based and New York Stock Exchange-listedhelicopter transportation services and oil and gas production facilitiesoperation company, for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act(FCPA). Among other things, [...]
Transparency International have published their new Corruption Perceptions Index today. I remain worried by this index. It covers 179 countries. Look at the top decile of clean countries:
1. Denmark2. Finland3. New Zealand **4. Singapore **5. Sweden6. Iceland **7. Netherlands **8. Switzerland **9. Canada10. Norway11. Australia12. Luxembourg **13. United Kingdom **14. Hong Kong **15. Austria16. Germany17. [...]
I’ve just reviewed a KPMG paper on tax and CSR. It’s lame.
So why not read something really good instead. Try the paper with the above title available here. This is a fascinating read, well argued and quite simply moves the debate on tax justice forward considerably. I’d call it seminal.
The abstract says this:
Although there is [...]
KPMG has published another report on tax and CSR. I’m not pretending that this is a full review of that paper, which I received yesterday, but it is an initial reaction.
I have to be candid and think this paper is little better than KPMG’s previous attempts at this. True, this paper tries to be balanced, [...]
There’s wide coverage this morning of the purchase of Telent (the last rump of the old GE / Marconi empire) to the Guernsey based Pension Corporation. As the Times reports it:
Telent agreed to a £400 million takeover by a subsidiary of Pension Corporation, a Guernsey-based retirement fund consolidator that is run by the private equity [...]
