Dennis Howlett, a long term blogging friend of mine has a great blog on his site about another blogging friend and commentator here - Stuart Jones, senior partner 3CA, chartered accountants based in Kendal. As Dennis says:
He’s a really nice person who works hard to do the best he can for his clients. He gets rightfully annoyed at the antics of bureaucracies that harm, impede or otherwise behave badly towards the small business. He’s none too impressed by the way some people manipulate the tax system to their advantage. Last weekend he went out to support protesters at the Westmorland shopping centre. He ended up being banned from using the centre for the day.
Stuart followed up with a well timed blog post entitled: Why I think the protests against Topshop are justified. He says:
I have sent this letter to the Financial Times. Hopefully they will publish it.
Sir,
Richard Horton’s suggestion “that more UK tax would be payable if Sir Philip owned the companies himself, but he does not, and he cannot pay tax on something he has not received and to which he has no legal right” would be more believable if HM Revenue and Customs accepted his argument and stopped applying “income splitting” legislation to smaller companies.
Until they do criticism of Sir Philip Green’s tax “savings” is fully justified.
As Dennis concludes:
None of this will be news to chartered accountant Richard Murphy who has been campaigning on this broad topic for many years. What is different today is that the ‘man in the street’ is finally seeing the direct impact of abusing the tax system on the ability of the nation to provide essential services. That’s where the rubber hits the road and where people like both Richard and Stuart have their part to play. They are the face of a progressive profession though you’d be hard put to know that when seeing some of the opposition ranged against their related but different stands on this topic.
Thanks to Dennis, but Stuart is a hero. It takes courage as an accountant to go out in the town where you work and protest about tax. Good for him! And it’s great to know there are accountants in the world who do think it’s right to protest.
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“would be more believable if HM Revenue and Customs accepted his argument and stopped applying “income splitting” legislation to smaller companies.”
What is the “income splitting legislation” that Mr Jones refers to? If he is referring to the settlements legislation at s624 et seq ITTOIA 2005 then he should be aware there is a specific let out that exempts outright gifts to spouses/civil partners.
And just because HMRC “apply it” does not mean it is right to do so – that is why they lost in Jones v Garnett. So it is HMRC who is wrong (and Mr Jones).