HMRC msut be fuming that Harry Redknapp is not guilty.
But shame ion them too. The ‘gift’ defence on the capital going into this account must have been known to them in advance and if both sides agree is hard to beat. They did agree. So they’re innocent.
But surely some undeclared income must have arisen on the account? It would be amazing if it had not. If they wanted a case why didn’t they prosecute on that? Now they’ve lost their chance. Harry is innocent. So be it.
Bloomberg has reported this morning that:
Switzerland must eliminate banking secrecy and renegotiate tax accords with the U.K. and Germany that clash with regional initiatives, according to European Union Tax Commissioner Algirdas Semeta.
While Switzerland agreed in March 2009 to meet international standards to avoid being blacklisted as a tax haven by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, bilateral agreements signed in September with Germany and the U.K. allow client identities to remain secret.
“Banking secrecy that allows companies or individuals to hide taxes has no future,” Semeta said in an interview in Brussels.
I wonder which bit of that Dave Hartnett and george Osborne, with their appalling tax deal with Switzerland don’t understand?
Nor come to that, which buit those from Switzerland who defend such deals in comments on this blog don’t understand.
Swiss banking secrecy has to die because it exists to facilitate tax and other crimes. Now let’s move in to kill it.
Bloomberg has reported today that:
European soccer ruling body UEFA is asking U.K. authorities to investigate two so-called letterbox companies that helped Porto (FCP)fund a player transfer.
For Gool Co. and Pearl Design Holding Ltd. provided finance for the two-time European champion to sign Brazilian striker Walter da Silvafor 6.2 million euros ($8.1 million) in 2010, according to Porto’s latest quarterly statement.
As banks ratchet up lending requirements, soccer clubs are seeking alternative ways to raise funds, often in return for a share of a player’s future transfer fee, said Sandalio Gomez, who teaches sports management at IESE business school in Madrid. UEFA officials said this increases the risk of money laundering because it’s unclear who owns the letterbox companies, which have mailing addresses in the U.K. and seemingly nothing else.
“We are urging state authorities to look into it,” UEFA Secretary General Gianni Infantino said. “Because we are a private company, an association, we cannot go to a company when it is a letter box saying ‘please tell us who you are and what you’re doing.’ They will tell us: ‘Who are you to ask me?’”
This is a massive problem facilitated by the UK.
Whilst we in the UK offer limited companies for sale for only a few pounds and utterly neglect the need to then regulate or tax these companies – as I have shown to be the case here – then the UK is undoubtedly losing out heavily to tax evasion as I have suggested (my estimate is £16 billion a year) and may, as UEFA seem to be suggesting, provide opportunities for money laundering.
That’s utterly negligent behaviour by successive UK governments and is all designed to ‘save’ costs for Companies House and H M Revenue & Customs whilst ignoring altogether the tax foregone and the massive cost to the UK of the tax foregone and crime permitted.
If we want responsible business in the UK we start by making sure each and every company files its accounts, delivers a tax return and pays its tax. It’s really not too much to ask. But our government refuses to do it. Why is that?
The Telegraph reported yesterday that:
People who receive cash-in-hand payments for goods and services are harming the economy, according to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) most senior taxman Dave Hartnett.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, he criticised tradesmen and other workers who try to get out of paying tax by asking for their payment in cash and said there will be a crackdown to catch individuals who do so from April 2012 onwards.
Mr Hartnett claimed evading VAT or income tax is ‘diddling’ the economy and will lead to further cuts for things like hospitals and schools.
“Tax provides the funding to run the country: hospitals, schools and everything else. Every time someone pays cash in order not to pay VAT, the nation gets diddled,” he remarked.
HSBC Holdings PLC is under investigation by a U.S. Senate panel in a money-laundering inquiry, the latest step in a long-running U.S. effort to halt shadowy money flows through global banks, according to people familiar with the situation and a company securities filing.
The inquiry being conducted by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations could yield a report and congressional hearing later this spring, these people said. The subcommittee has a history of conducting high-profile hearings that have proved embarrassing for the world’s biggest banks.
People have suggested I am seeking to highlight HSBC’s seemingly consistent involvement in investigations of tax evasion as if I have ulterior motive.
I dispute that: I don’t need to highlight that HSBC seem to be consistently involved in investigations of tax evasion; the fact is that they are.
The question is, why is that the case?
Maybe The Rev Lord Stephen Green could offer an explanation as former CEO and Chair of the bank?
I really couldn’t help but smile at this report in SwissInfo:
Switzerland’s oldest private bank, Wegelin & Co, will sell most of its business to the Raiffeisen Group amid a dispute with United States tax authorities.
Wegelin, which was founded in 1741, said on Friday most of its clients and staff would be transferred to a company called Notenstein Private Bank which will in turn become a 100 per cent subsidiary of the Raiffeisen banking group. The sale price has not been made public.
US authorities charged three Wegelin staff on January 3 with conspiring to hide more than $1.2 billion (SFr1.1 billion) in client assets from tax officials. Wegelin said at the time that it was prepared for the “expected quarrel” and the bank had not broken any Swiss laws.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Wegelin senior managing partner Konrad Hummler said the sale had resulted from “the extraordinarily difficult situation and threat to the bank brought about by the legal dispute with the US”.
Even the suggestion of tax evasion does not pay now.
The Swiss might, at last, be beginning to realise the truth in that obviously true statement.
For the second time this morning, I pick up a significant change in sentiment in a news story that suggests real change is afoot. First it was the NHS, now it is about the UK Swiss tax deal, and importantly, the change in mood music is coming from Swissinfo, which has reported:
The tax deals which Switzerland reached last year with Britain and Germany could yet fail in the face of opposition in Europe and in the countries concerned.
The agreements use the so-called “Rubik” model for dealing with the undeclared billions held by foreign customers in Swiss banks.
It is quick and easy: the countries whose taxpayers have tried to hide their assets get an inflow of money straight away, and Swiss banks remain relatively attractive to the super-rich who prefer to keep a low profile.
It works by levying a withholding tax on the assets held in the banks. In other words, a tax is automatically levied on the interest they earn, and then remitted to the country concerned. But no information about the identity of clients is provided.
And that is the sticking point: the European Union is insisting on “automatic exchange of information”, so that tax evaders can be tracked down.
Apologies to them for a lengthy quite but it’s necessary to get a sense of how Swiss sentiment is changing. And changing it is because this deal is beginning to look dead in the water.
It contravenes EU laws in the European Savings Tax Directive.
It undermines EU solidarity against tax evasion.
It helps preserve the concept of Swiss banking secrecy that was designed to assist tax evasion, and still does so.
And it’s very obviously a tawdry deal.
Osborne and Hartnett went for it. But it looks like the EU will kill it, as a very few of us suggested possible. And that will be good news for the EU as a whole.
It’s reported in the Isle of Man this morning that:
The chief minister has dismissed demands from Labour leader Ed Miliband for talks with the Isle of Man and the Channel islands ‘over tax evasion’.
In the United Kingdom press at the weekend, it was reported Mr Miliband would call for negotiations to begin with the governments of the Crown dependencies.
It was also claimed he would demand ministers follow up the talks, with threats to shame the islands on the international stage by placing them on a globally recognised blacklist.
Allan Bell says he has only just received assurances from the UK government that it is happy with the way the Isle of Man is regulated.
Perhaps Mr Bell hasn’t noticed that Miliband is, I presume, disagreeing with the government on this issue and saying Labour would do something different? In which case he needs to wake up and smell the coffee.
Ed Miliband is giving an ultimatum to British tax havens. According to the Independent:
Ed Miliband declares war today on the UK’s secretive offshore tax havens which he says could raise £2.4bn for the Exchequer and help to reduce the deficit.
As Ed Balls, the Shadow Chancellor, signals a major shift in economic strategy by admitting that a Labour government would be unable to reverse all of the coalition’s cuts, Mr Miliband will expand on his theme of “fairness in tough times” by making those at the top of society contribute more.
In the Labour leader’s sights are the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, which shelter UK residents’ cash which would otherwise have to be taxed by HM Revenue and Customs.
European Union loopholes allow UK residents to disguise money offshore held in front companies and trusts. The tax havens are not obliged to let HMRC know which British taxpayer the vehicle relates to.
The EU is attempting to close these loopholes, but Mr Miliband will say that this time-consuming process, which could take years, is allowing billions of pounds to go uncollected.
A Labour source said: “In these tough times, when unfair choices are being imposed on people – like cuts to tax credits, or changes to child benefit – everything needs to be done to ensure those that owe tax pay their fair share.”
Mr Miliband will call on the Government to act as a matter of priority through diplomacy at EU level. The plans are an expansion of his theme, set out in his speech last week, for the deficit to be reduced through fairness – particularly tackling the richest in society, while defending the “squeezed middle” on low to middle incomes.
Tax experts estimate that as much as £2.4bn could be raised by calling time on UK tax havens. Richard Murphy, director of Tax Research UK, said: “Breaking tax haven secrecy is essential to collecting the tax that’s the alternative to cuts.”
The policy, which would be included in Labour’s 2015 manifesto, is designed to show Mr Miliband is acting on reducing the UK’s deficit amid ongoing questions about his leadership and the party’s economic credibility.”
And according to the Observer:
Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, is to demand that the government forcesJersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man to reveal the identity of British tax evaders with money hidden on the islands.
The tax havens, which are crown dependencies, are costing the government billions every year as the rich protect their money from Revenue and Customs probes through front companies and trusts.
Miliband will this week call for negotiations to begin with the governments on the three islands. He will also demand ministers follow up the talks with threats to shame the islands on the international stage by placing them on a globally recognised blacklist drawn up the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)..
The move is part of the Labour leader’s attempt to define himself as the foremost campaigner in British politics against the excesses of capitalism. He will claim that every £1m raised by his policy on tax havens is equivalent to a year’s salary for 50 newly qualified teachers.
UK residents with money abroad are required to pay tax in Britain on the income they receive, but many do not declare that they have money stashed away.
Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man have not been co-operating with UK authorities’ requests for the identity of people with money on the islands. Richard Murphy, of Tax Research UK, said the country could recoup £2.4bn.
I have already provided links to my workings this morning. They are likely to be an underestimate as they ignore tax to be recovered on capital hidden offshore.
I do, of course, welcome this move by Labour. My hope is it’s the start of a whole campaign on the tax gap. That though is for time to tell. For now it makes very clear that the claim by the Crown Dependencies that they are transparent and all is now well with them is but a hollow sham: that is far from the truth. Now it is time for them to offer real reform if they are serious in their claim that they do not want tax evaders to use them, something that is all too easy at present.
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