I loved the following extract from the Tax Journal, based on Monday night's Panorama:
Most tax avoidance would not be caught by the government's proposed general anti-abuse rule, Graham Black, President of the Association of Revenue and Customs, told Panorama. ‘It's rather as if you legalise murder and then say that your crime statistics have fallen,' he said.
Graham is exactly right. Graham Aaranson's GAAR is, I now realise, a great gift to the tax avoidance industry because by not being a GAAR at all (Aaronson says it isn't) and by tackling only a tiny minority of the very worst schemes (as Aaranson says it is the most it will do) it provides a fig leaf of respectability for the tax avoidance industry because it will let them claim that thee is a GAAR and their scheme does not fall within it so it must be all right.
No wonder the Chartered Institute of Tax is so keen to say the tax system is suddenly just hunky dory. They're laughing al the way to Cayman, Jersey, Switzerland and Singapore.
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For Graham Aaronson, a major player in the tax avoidance industry, to do otherwise would be akin to a turkey voting for Christmas. The question is why Osborne appointed him for the job and why Labour or anyone else objected.
I have no idea whether Graham Black is actually a tax professional or a full-time trade unionist. What is clear is that he hasn’t properly understood the Aaronson report or is deliberately misrepresenting its findings.
The proposed GAAR is designed to counteract schemes that, due to their nature, have avoided been stamped out by the combination of purposive court interpretation of tax legislation, over 300 items of specific anti-avoidance legislation and DOTAS.
Furthernore, to say that if a tax scheme isn’t caught by the proposed GAAR then it somehow gains a stamp of approval is nonsensical. This implies that that purposive interpretation, TAARs and DOTAS just fall away – which they don’t.
Graham Black is a very senior tax inspector
He knows exactly what he’s talking about
As do his members
The misinformation is yours
Black didn’t do himself any professional favours with his comments on Panorama. Probably a useful intervention for trade union purposes though.
How does Black explain Tower MCashback and Eclipse 35? No GAAR yet they were struck down with existing common law principles by the courts.
Black’s extreme views affirm the concerns of Aaaronson that a broad based GAAR will give undue discretion to HMRC in deciding whether or not to apply a GAAR. If anything, he ensuring a broader GAAR will not happen for some time.
Respectfully – Black made his point very well indeed on Panorama
It’s you who has the problem – not him