I’d love to say the following idea was mine, but it wasn’t, so I’m going to give credit for where it came from, in a letter to the Guardian today: Shareholders in a limited company that goes bad are liable for no more than the money they have already paid for their shares – the company’s creditors
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As the GMB reported yesterday: Almost half of Southern Cross care homes are owned by companies based outside the UK, including hundreds registered in tax havens, according to a union dossier. The GMB said 199 homes are registered in the Cayman islands, 43 in Guernsey, 41 in Gibraltar, 39 in Jersey, four in the British
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The News International debacle has much to say about corporate responsibility in the UK or the lack of it. Faith in major corporations was already low – and the Murdoch press for all its power was hardly popular, but there’s a dimension to this debacle that has to be pulled out here.  These comments come
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The Ethical Corporation published an article yesterday under the title “Corporate disclosure: the tax blame game”. It said: It’s too easy to demonise big companies that take steps to minimise their tax liabilities [but] in most developed societies, companies have the right – as do individuals – to arrange their affairs in such a manner
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The Guardian has concluded its Tax Gap series. In a closing editorial it said: Denis Healey had his own definition of tax avoidance. It differed from outright evasion, he said, in only one respect: “the thickness of a prison wall”. Professionals do not call it avoidance; they prefer tidy names such as “tax-efficient supply chain
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The FT has reported: Some of the largest companies in the US, including General Electric, Wal-Mart and PepsiCo, were expected on Monday to launch a drive to improve ethical standards in business in an attempt to stem the decline in corporate America’s public standing. The move by 17 companies, with nearly $1,000bn in sales, to
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The Sunday Times has reported that: A partner at one the world’s biggest accountancy firms said: “By buying stolen data, tax authorities have encouraged anyone in a bank in Liechtenstein, Monaco or any other tax haven to sell private banking records for cash. “Ethically and legally that is surely a highly questionable way to proceed.”
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Neasa MacErlean had an interesting review of the next round of tax changes likely in the UK in the Observer today. She was kind enough to quote some of my thoughts, but more interesting was a comment from BDO’s senior tax partner Stephen Herring. He is reported to have said: that a cut in corporation
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This apology is correct. It became obvious the Guardian got this story wrong, at least in part, after it was published. I’m afraid there was a logic flaw in it, and this outcome was inevitable for that technical reason. Although some thought otherwise, I did not advise in detail on his story before publication. But
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