What the PAC report on HMRC’s management of the tax affairs of large corporations has shown is that tax management has become an ethics free zone. That need not be the case. I argued very strongly for a Code of Conduct for tax a couple or so years ago, and as a result drafted the Tax Justice Network and Association for Accountancy and Business
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The National Audit Office has issued a report saying: In a report to Parliament today, the National Audit Office affirms that good tax agents help their clients get their tax right. But, according to an analysis carried out by the NAO of a sample of tax returns, self-assessed income tax returns filed by customers represented
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HM Revenue & Customs has launched its new Charter. The full text is here. The summary is: Your rights What you can expect from us: Respect you Help and support you to get things right Treat you as honest Treat you even-handedly Be professional and act with integrity Tackle people who deliberately break the rules
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The FT has noted: Banks and their advisers have hit back at the government’s proposals to crack down on tax avoidance, claiming a new code of conduct would damage the competitiveness of the sector. The Treasury’s proposed voluntary code to curb avoidance by banks was also lambasted as potentially unconstitutional and discriminatory in strongly worded
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My own profession can disgust me. Lawyers take the prize making nauseous though. Take this: Opportunity for offshore account holders to slash the cost of using HMRC’s new “tax amnesty” Qualifying UK taxpayers advised to open a Liechtenstein bank account before making a disclosure More generous “tax amnesty” for offshore accounts opened locally rather than
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The predictable response to the new Banking Code has arrived. Accountancy Age has reported: Michael Wistow, head of tax at City law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner, said that the code would make the UK ‘a less attractive place to do business, which cannot be helpful in these most difficult times and will further damage the
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The Chartered Institute of Tax has issued a press release about the new Tax Code of Conduct for Banks, saying they welcome it, and: The CIOT’s initial view is that much of the code reflects good governance and the need for an open and transparent relationship with HMRC which we support.  However, the CIOT would
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The good news about the government’s new Tax Code of Conduct is that it exists. It would be churlish not to recognise that. But, that said, it really does not go far enough. In keeping with the government’s lack of willing to tackle the banking industry it tackles the issue and then fails to address
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This is the Tax Code of Conduct for Banks on which the government is now consulting: OVERVIEW 1.  The Government expects that banking groups, their subsidiaries, and their branches operating in the UK, will comply with the spirit, as well as the letter, of tax law, discerning and following the intentions of Parliament. 1.1  This
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