Prof Prem Sikka of Essex University wrote the following article with the above title for The Conversation. I reproduce it her with his permission: The tax debate offers insight into the possible trajectories of capitalism. Organised tax avoidance does not create anything of social value, but encourages concentration of wealth in relatively few hands. It is part of the unsustainable
Read the Rest…

This was recorded late last year – but is well worth sharing. It’s my good friend Prem Sikka in action: Hat tip to another good friend – Dr Atul Shah.

The Public Accounts Committee has spoken: the relationship between the Big 4 firms of accountants and HMRC is far too close and is a threat to the objectivity of UK tax policy. I agree. Having been on a Treasury committee recently as an ‘outsider’ it was quite a shock to get so many mails from Big 4
Read the Rest…

From the FT this morning: The head of the US audit regulator has made a fresh call for senior auditors to be stripped of their anonymity as details continued to emerge from the KPMG insider trading scandal. James Doty, chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, said investors were in favour of ending the secrecy
Read the Rest…

From Paul Collier in Prospect magazine: Corporate opacity is not inadvertent: it is the cumulative achievement of the sustained effort of some of the most brilliant professional minds on the planet. These people should hang their heads in shame. In advanced economies their actions undermine the tax base and the public spending essential for the
Read the Rest…

The Bank of England issued a statement yesterday saying that the UK’s major banks and building societies are currently underestimating their losses by £50 billion. I think that’s true. But why didn’t they say as a result that the accounts of the banks in question are not true and fair? Or that they cannot have been properly audited as a result? And that this
Read the Rest…

Prem Sikka has an excellent article in the Guardian in which he argues: The long-awaited report by the Competition Commission on the UK auditing market is a disappointment. The market is dominated by just four accounting firms – PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Deloitte and Ernst & Young – who collectively audit more than 95% of the FTSE 350 companies. Why? This is
Read the Rest…

The Jersey Evening Post has given us one of the clearest insights we could ask for on the role of KPMG in perpetuating tax haven abuse. As they note: A tax expert has urged Jersey and Guernsey not to accept the same tax deal with the UK that the Isle of Man signed up to
Read the Rest…

The announcement on tax avoidance and government procurement made today includes an interesting paragraph that says a company bidding for a contract has to disclose when bidding for a government contract worth more than £2 million: A failed avoidance scheme which the supplier was involved in and which was, or should have been, notified under the Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Scheme (DOTAS)
Read the Rest…