In September's Taxcast, out now, and accessible below: A whistleblower reward threatens banking secrecy - where will the money go next? Bangladesh considers expanding a regressive VAT tax and Professor Prem Sikka on the neglected role of the Big Four accountancy firms aka the 'pin-stripe mafia.'
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“this tests just one issue, that’s all” – that might be the case but it is the most important one (collection of client due diligence on ultimate beneficial owners) which in turn is a major part of combatting money laundering which includes in most jurisdictions includes tax evasion, corruption, bribery and fraud etc.
I’ve been looking forward to Jason Sharman’s report (backed by the World Bank) for some time now. From memory, only 10 of over 1,700 corporate service providers in the US required certified copies of CDD. Money laundering is alive and well in the USA, just look at Senator Levin’s report on the abuse of their financial system by corrupt foreign officials, money laundering cases like Wachovia, HSBC, Standard Chartered etc etc…and there will be more. But there still remains a lack of political will especially in the USA to deal with it. Perhaps this is the reason why? http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009/dec/13/drug-money-banks-saved-un-cfief-claims
All agreed – but I still stress – it is just one of the issues
i dont get some of the comments about the big 4 made on the sound file. It has been established that legal professional privilege does not extend to accountants – so why is it suggested that HMRC cannot access the working papers of the accountants, when we all know they can? as for tax returns (and presumably by definition comps) being made public, well I suspect the issue of competitor knowledge of working practices would far outweigh the outcry about some tax comps being publicly available.
Respectfully, if those papers are offshore try to get them
And let me also assure you, theory and practice do not always coincide