Adding to the parliamentary pressure on HMRC this week from the Public Accounts Committee, UK Uncut Legal Action, an NGO inspired by the anti-cuts direct action group UK Uncut announced today it will issue proceedings in the High Court on Thursday. The campaigning group made the decision to go forward with the case after receiving what they term a 'dismissive' response from HMRC to letters from their lawyers demanding the alleged sweetheart deal agreed between David Hartnett and Goldman Sachs is quashed.This announcement from UK Uncut Legal Action comes as the Public Accounts Committee today releases a report into the dealings between large companies and the HMRC, and the way that the tax office has handled high value tax settlements with companies including Vodafone and Goldman Sachs. The report is expected to trigger the launch of the National Audit Office's investigation of 10 particular tax disputes by the retired judge Sir Andrew Park.
UK Uncut Legal Action have welcomed scrutiny into tax deals from both the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee reports but claim the legal action they are taking is the only mechanism that can result in a declaration that the Goldman Sachs tax deal was unlawful, as well as returning £20 million to the public purse.
Leigh Day & Co who are acting for UK Uncut Legal Action, confirmed in a letter sent in October that if the settlement reached between HMRC and Goldman Sachs, allegedly allowing the company off £20million worth of tax owed, was not reversed it would issue these proceedings which seek specific disclosure for all internal documents regarding the process by which agreement was reached.
Richard Stein from Leigh Day & Co said: “We wrote to the HMRC in October asking them to quash the deal and reclaim the millions unpaid in taxes from one of the world's richest banks but received no response. We chased again in November and they claimed they needed more time.
"They have now replied with what we feel is an extremely weak argument as to why this decision cannot be reversed, therefore, we will now progress this legal action and issue proceedings in the High Court.”
UK Uncut Legal Action has also launched a public fundraising appeal, which has raised nearly £10,000 in two weeks with over two thousand people making small donations. This represents what the campaign group is calling a 'people's court case' against HMRC. Support for this legal action has also been voiced by over 3000 individuals from the public and leading anti-poverty NGOs, MPs and Unions, such as Unite, PCS, GMB, Compass, and the Tax Justice Network, who have signed onto a UK Uncut Legal Action statement which says: "It is undeniably in the public interest that this important case should go through the UK courts in order to ensure transparency, accountability and fairness."
Tim Street, director of UK Uncut Legal Action said:
“There is overwhelming public support from Unions, NGOs, MPs and thousands of ordinary people who want to see this dodgy tax deal challenged in the courts. It shows the deep level of outrage that people feel over state sanctioned tax dodging by big business, while government destroys public services that ordinary people rely on, saying that there is no money."
He continued, “It shows that the government is making a political choice to turn a blind eye to tax dodging- which loses the public purse £25bn billion a year. The government is slashing public services and the support for the poorest instead of clamping down on rich tax dodgers. This cannot be allowed to continue. Dave Hartnett's retirement is welcome news for campaigners but HMRC needs a massive culture change to stop special treatment for corporations and secret unlawful handshake deals”
I think this is welcome action, and is important to ensure faith is restored in HMRC. Unless they are challenged and required to recreate the right balance in the management of tax affairs then there will undoubtedly be ongoing concerns. If this action puts pressure on HMRC to address those concerns then it has to be welcome.
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They going to find out that the courts are also corrupt.The Vampire Squids tentacles are everywhere
Yes, must agree.
Goldman ex-employees have been placed everywhere that is anywhere.
And of course if anything threatens the established order enough men with guns will come to stop it. I note the police were on the news today claiming 50% of people wanted to see the use of water cannon and rubber bullets in instances of public disorder, a statistic I very much doubt but I hope I make my point; men with guns are already coming. However, we’re increasingly backed into a corner so really, men with guns or not, one has to fight even if it’s just to survive. More power to UK Uncut, it shows what can be done from humble beginnings. Speaking of which the Economania site was being tweeted about for the first time last night, much to my shock. Blimey – this is all getting real! 🙂
Bill, seeing as the majority of the UK population favour capital punishment I don’t doubt that they also want the police to use water cannon and rubber bullets.
But not in the Daily Mash:
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/business/britain-is-our-bitch%2c-says-goldman-sachs-201112204691/
@Bill Kruse
You might have missed the bit about army units being placed on availability in case of more civil disorder….
And the increasing right-wingedness on police blogs….not that that is anything new: right-wing towards those with no money but left-wing when it comes to THEIR pensions.
Oh well….nothing new in this “get your hand off that knife in my back Jack”
See http://www.channel4.com/news/rioters-could-face-plastic-bullets-says-police-report.
How a deal such as this in favour of Goldman Sachs was even contemplated, let alone actually carried out, just shows how much our public offices have been corrupted by the big money men.
There shouldn’t even be a question of it being quashed immediately. In fact, I would go as far as saying someone should be jailed! I’m looking at you, Dave Hartnett!
I fail to see why the tax affairs of public companies should not be made public. After all, when MP’s expenses became open to greater scrutiny then the likelihood of fraudulent conduct naturally decreased. So with tax, not only would tax evasion, cosy arrangements etc be exposed more readily, but the permanent secretary for tax and others would not be able to hide behind confidentiality of taxpayer’s affairs as is the case now – simply because it would no longer be a matter of confidentiality. This would work to the advantage of HMRC particularly if – as might be the case with Vodafone – they are actually not guilty of making “cosy arrangements”. The case against Mr Hartnett is very far from proven. But at present, it seems that he is no more able to prove his innocence to the public at large then his accusers are able to prove his guilt. This seems a little ridiculous.
It would be very easy to exempt small companies, or “close” companies etc from this level of transparency. There are several clearly defined points at which a line could be drawn in order to protect confidentiality for individual taxpayers. It is simply ludicrous that large publicly quoted companies receive the same level of confidentiality as a private individual.
“The ring-fencing legislation will be in place by the end of the Parliament and banks will be expected to comply with it as soon as is practically possible. The competition requirements will be in place by 2013. When it comes to jibes about who is working in the financial services, I seem to remember that a number of former Labour Prime Ministers are now quite lucratively paid in the financial services.”
George Osborne in the year of our lord 2011 19 december
How do you legislate for this sort of actions? The blair/brown economic failure as not deterred the financial sector from hiring these clowns.
Hartnett retirement will change nothing, he will be taken care of and we will get another low life lackey
We need The Courageous State
Just donated to this worthy cause, as should everyone who cares about a decent society.
Further on Goldmans…..AND a good article that may well have been written for the UK instead of the USA:
“Bloomberg news published an article based on confidential sources about how Henry Paulson, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs and the Republican U.S. Treasury secretary during the financial crisis, held a secret meeting with the top 20 hedge-fund managers in New York City in late July 2008. This was about two weeks after he testified to Congress that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were “well-capitalized.”
I knew for a fact that what Paulson told Congress wasn’t true. I wrote my entire June 2008 newsletter detailing exactly why Fannie and Freddie certainly had billions in losses that they had not yet revealed to investors — $500 billion in losses, at least. There was no question in my mind, both companies were insolvent — “zeros,” as I explained”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-corruption-america
Switched on BBC News 24 at 5pm…told the wife that Richard Murphy (“the tax guy I keep talking about”) is coming on at 5.15…we both waited for the Leveson enquiry to finish…it’s going to overrun she said…no, no Richard said 5.15 on Twitter I said…then some North Korean jibber-jabber appears…what the…? says I…told you says she…then at 5.25 the story changes to HMRC and at 5.27 I say there you go now you’ll hear something…2 short exchanges later,at 5.29 Nick Owen says oh well we’ll have to leave it there then!
I hope you fared better on Radio Wales!
It’s not quite bread and circuses yet but 2 minutes on tax, HMRC, sweetheart deals!
I’m starting to really despair at BBC News. France 24 and RT are much, much better at the moment…
I know the feeling!
What is more – the line to Cambridge was so bad I had to guess the questions from the one word in four I heard
I got seven minutes on Radio Wales though – uninterrupted!