If we can tax offshore gambling it’s time to tax all offshore activity George – so why the dual standard?

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As the Guardian has reported:

The chancellor, George Osborne, will fire the starting gun on the Treasury's new tax grab of offshore gambling profits by making a statement to the House of Commons.

The move, squeezed into the House's schedule on Monday, just before the start of the summer recess, follows a statement on the same topic last week by the heritage minister, John Penrose. He announced that every betting company offering wagers to British punters will have to obtain a UK licence — news that was widely seen as a precursor to the UK beginning to tax offshore operators.

So suddenly the government finds it can tax offshore transactions. I welcome that, of course.

So let's have some further essential changes to make sure this always happens.

Let's make sure that all VAT abuse through the Channel Islands ends, now.

Let's ensure that all interest paid to an offshore entity is subject to a tax deduction at source - without exception (yes, including payments to banks wherever their head offices may be incorporated).

Let's ensure all rents paid offshore are always subject to tax withholding at source.

And let's scrap the appalling reforms to UK tax law introduced by George Osborne that actively encourages the use of offshore by multinational corporations and offers them massive tax savings if they do so - surely one of the most bizarre decisions by a Chancellor of the UK, ever?

And it's time to say that all the farcical claims to be offshore made by so many multinational corporation subsidiaries by asserting board meetings are initialled at meetings in far flung places are just a charade and that all the entities in question are actually resident here in the UK where so obviously the decisions are really taken.

The people of the UK are fed up with scams. Let's stop the offshore one.


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