As the Mail reports this morning:
George Osborne's plan to raise billions from a tax raid on secret Swiss bank accounts has been cast into doubt by the data watchdog.
The nation's finances had been boosted by the prediction that the Chancellor's assault on tax dodgers would net an extra £3.2billion.
But today the Office for National Statistics said there was now ‘significant doubt' about how much the plan would secure, and slashed the amount brought in so far to just £342million.
Now this will be no surprise to readers of this blog or the TJN blog, because we both predicted that there was no way the Swiss deal would raise the money predicted for it. That's not because the cash is not due and in Switzerland to collect; it undoubtedly is. But the deal Dave Hartnett signed was so riddled with loopholes and get outs - as well as being fundamentally based upon the assumed trustworthiness of the Swiss banks who have spent the last 75+ years selling tax evasion - that there was no way it would ever collect the sums claimed.
And, of course, we have been proven right in saying so.
When will the government pay more attention to what we have to say? The simple fact is that we'd have collected more tax from those who owe it and would have a smaller deficit and better public services if they had. And that's why this is important.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
…but we are back to the revolving door and the corporate capture of the state.
presumably the obr [or should that be obn] approved the £3.2b?
No – they refused it
Mr Murphy,
Conspiracy theories aside, the only logical conclusion is that there were far fewer undeclared deposits than was previously thought. This is not implausible: the UK is a relatively poor country in terms of net wealth, and whatever wealth it ‘owns’is either in the hands of non-domiciled resident foreigners, or tied up in domestic property.
Absolute nonsense
The opportunity to leave was readily available, and no doubt widely used
And trust structures were virtually untouched
Please don’t make crass claims in the face of the facts
Hartnett was a gullible fool, a pawn in the game of tax haven abuse Osborne rather likes, and the evidence is clear
As you say the OBR had questioned the figure in November 2011, but the OBR is still listened to, so it cannot be that the TJN is ignored because it agrees with the OBR. Could it be that this is because the OBR places the problem as being the recent announcement from the Swiss Bankers Association, i.e. many of the assets in Switzerland belong to non-domiciled UK residents, but the TJN argues the cash is still due?
The cash is due
It has a) moved b) been hidden behind trusts c) date I say it – not declared by Swiss banks