Running a well read blog is a privilege.
Sometimes it is also hard work.
And occasionally it’s difficult.
This week I am travelling with relatively limited internet access, I suspect. So I will apologise in advance if comments take some time to be moderated. That is unavoidable.
As is the need for moderation itself. Despite excellent spam filters some [...]
Alastair Darling announced in the Pre-Budget Report:
a major reform of capital gains tax, introducing a single rate of 18 per cent from April 2008, ensuring a more sustainable system that is straightforward for taxpayers and internationally competitive.
And all hell let loose. Everyone from the Institute of Directors to left wing Labour MP George Mudie is [...]
Comments made following the launch of the TJN / AABA Code of Conduct for Taxation yesterday questioned the links between democracy and taxation. For example, one commentator wrote:
So, death to progressive taxes then? I agree. It’s undemocratic to vote for other people to pay tax to supply services that you will consume.
I profoundly disagree. As [...]
I have tried to get a straight answer from the Isle of Man on whether their 0 / 10 tax legislations has been approved by the EU Code of Conduct on Business Taxation group. I asked:
Has the IoM’s version of 0/10 legislation been approved in full by the EC Code of Conduct group, or not?
I [...]
Accountancy Age featured the following article by me this morning on its editorial pages (link to follow):
Tax has always been close to the accountant’s heart. Once it was simple: the only questions were how much tax was due and what, if anything, might be legitimately done about it.
But as with everything else over the last [...]
The FT has reported that Gerrit Zalm, who will on Thursday be announced as the new chairman of the trustees of the International Accounting Standards Board has said:
Europe should not develop its own version of accounting standards or it will risk torpedoing the global effort to produce a single standard.
As the FT notes, this could [...]
The Tax Justice Network and Association for Accountancy & Business Affairs have today published a Code of Conduct for Taxation that I have written on their mutual behalf.The Code of Conduct is just 2 pages long. It has six headings, each of which contains three statements of principle. In combination, these present what we hope [...]
Accountancy Age has reported that the Financial Reporting Council has announced the members of its new board. As it notes:
The board will be led by current chairman, Sir Christopher Hogg and CE Paul Boyle. Baroness Sarah Hogg will serve as deputy chair. According to the FRC, the new board will be enlarged to sixteen members [...]
Reuters reports that Brazilian police have arrested at least 40 people including senior executives at Cisco Systems Inc on suspicion of tax fraud. They report:
Police and tax authorities said Cisco’s Brazilian unit had imported $500 million worth of telecommunications and network equipment over the last five years without properly paying import duties. In all, the [...]
The Guardian has reported that:
research by the Guardian and Legal Business magazine shows that some top London law firms, who claim to support the UN’s millennium goals of reducing global poverty, are making fortunes representing the vultures.
Vulture funds buy up sovereign debt issued by poor countries at a fraction of its face value, then sue [...]
