Where’s the objectivity?

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Accountancy Age runs something called InsiderBusiness which is a weekly web cast on a topical issue. This week's trailer says:

The UK's tax system is at a crucial turning point. An increasing number of companies are exiting the country, saying they fear the government's new initiatives on foreign profits. Meanwhile the chancellor is being urged to impose a windfall tax on energy companies' profits and to ignore corporate protests about tax, provoking greater fears about the British business tax climate. At the same time business lobby groups are insisting that unless the burden of corporate taxation itself is reduced, more companies will flee abroad. Insider Business is bringing together tax experts to determine what is reality and what is rhetoric in this heated debate - and to answer your questions.

SCHEDULED Event, 10 September 2008 - 11:00 am

The difficulty with the blurb is that I will tell you now that this programme will fail in its objective of determin[ing] what is reality and what is rhetoric. The tow participants are Dominic Stuttaford, Tax Lawyer, Norton Rose LLP and Chas Roy-Chowdhury, Head of Taxation, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

Struttaford said this in International Taxation Review last week:

"The benefit to companies relocating is not only a potential reduction in their overall tax rate, because dividends from non-UK low tax subsidiaries are not subject to UK tax but also avoiding the uncertainty that now exists in the UK as to how international groups are taxed," said Dominic Stuttaford, a tax partner at the law firm Norton Rose.

It's pretty clear to see where he stands as a result: on the side of making money from taking companies out of the UK.

As for Chas Roy-Chowdhury, the man is so anti-HMRC, government and taxation that all you ever get from him is a diatribe that makes the Taxpayer's Alliance look moderate on occasion.

In which case what does Accountancy Age hope to achieve in offering such a biased panel?


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