Which bank is copping it?

Posted on

The FT reports:

The beleaguered banking industry is under fire from a new direction. The world's largest tax authorities are setting their sights on the aggressive avoidance fostered by some banks' structured finance divisions.

This became clear this month when 40-odd government revenue heads discussed tax avoidance at a meeting in Cape Town under the aegis of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The general mood of the meeting was conciliatory: they proposed forging an "enhanced relationship" with corporate taxpayers and advisers in the hope they would be more transparent in return for better treatment from the tax authorities.

But the banks were not promised an "enhanced relationship". Instead, the OECD agreed to undertake a further study into the way that some banks exploit aggressive tax planning opportunities for their clients, the inter-bank finance market and for their own proprietary trading activities.

And then Accountancy Age reports that HM Revenue & Customs have 150 inspectors in one company right now.

So which bank is in the firing line? After all, HMRC wrote the OECD report. There has to be a link.


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:

  • Richard Murphy

    Read more about me

  • Support This Site

    If you like what I do please support me on Ko-fi using credit or debit card or PayPal

  • Taxing wealth report 2024

  • Newsletter signup

    Get a daily email of my blog posts.

    Please wait...

    Thank you for sign up!

  • Podcast

  • Follow me

    LinkedIn

    LinkedIn

    Mastodon

    @RichardJMurphy

    Twitter

    @RichardJMurphy

    Instagram

    @RichardJMurphy