I note that UBS, that bastion of tax compliance,last week predicted a: gradual erosion of governments’ ability to tax. This must get them very excited, but the comment was made in response to the supposed exodus of companies from the UK. As Amit Kara, a director of UBS, apparently said: This is the kind of
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One of those from the Right who is apt to comment on this blog has noted that earlier today I said in my blog on Tescos that Tax planning and tax avoidance are both normal and legal My response is to quote President Roosevelt’s Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau, who said: if taxes are the price
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From Hansard, 14 May 2008: Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the revenue that would be raised in 2008-09 if the upper limit on national insurance contributions were abolished. [205248] Jane Kennedy: The yield from removing the upper earnings limit for employees Class 1 National Insurance contributions
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The Guardian has admitted that it libelled Tescos in its articles (no longer available on the web) published in February in which it alleged that Tesco avoided corporation tax using a complex offshore structure. This follows the apology it published two weeks ago. I have advised the Guardian, but not on the original stories it
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A poll by the FT shows that: Strong majorities in five European countries – ranging from 76 per cent in Spain to 87 per cent in Germany – consider that income inequality is too great. But 78 per cent of respondents in the US, traditionally seen as more tolerant of income inequality, also think the
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Neasa MacErlean had an interesting review of the next round of tax changes likely in the UK in the Observer today. She was kind enough to quote some of my thoughts, but more interesting was a comment from BDO’s senior tax partner Stephen Herring. He is reported to have said: that a cut in corporation
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A good article by Carl Mortished in the Times this morning. This is an extract, after he notes the considerable difficulties Alastair Darling is having in finding anyone to pay the cost of running the UK’s government: Globalisation was not meant to be like this – a frantic race to the bottom where the Devil
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These are my links for May 16th: Tax Justice Network: Swiss banker blows whistle on industry – Another angle FT.com / Comment & analysis / Comment – Change is in the air for financial superclass – It is

Transparency International, India, issued this press release today. I think it worth reproducing in full: Transparency International, India is concerned over the attitude of the Indian Government in seeking information from the German Government about millions of dollars of un-accounted-for money, belonging to the people of India, lying in Liechtenstein, a small country near Germany.
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