In March I wrote about three tax inquiries started by parliamentary committees. They are on tax evasion and tax avoidance, the VAT tax gap and tax settlements.
The last is not my area of expertise. And there are definitely those more expert on some of the VAT issues on which questions were asked than I am.
But that still left quite a lot in which I felt it appropriate to comment, not least because most of my academic research is on these issues. As a result two submissions went in yesterday. Unfortunately I cannot now share them until they are published by parliament.
I also regret that neither reflects my most recent work in company usage, HMRC resourcing and a new tax gap methodology: in each area more work is required before data can be shared. But it was important to signal that these are live areas for debate. Having spent the last two weekends working on these submissions as my work schedule did not permit enough time to get them done otherwise I might take this one off.
For the record, I am also working on tax spillover methodology, continuing research into the Big 4 and country-by-country reporting right now.
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I hope the weather is kind to you. It’s been brilliant here and we haven’t had the ‘showers’.
Have a weekend off; and leave the Italians to sort their own mess. Whatever you do, don’t wash the car. That would be inviting a downpour. 🙂
I washed a car once
Thirty five years ago
And then said ‘never again’
They could help close the VAT gap by not going ahead with local tax offices, which will result in loss of local knowledge and many businesses never getting a VAT inspection. In the “good old days” in Customs and Excise just about every VAT trader had a visit at least every 3 years, and others more frequently.
I assure you, I have made both points
Sorry – crucial word missed out – should read “closing ” local tax offices
I am particularly interested in the responses to the Evasion/Avoidance enquiry’s question on tax professionals:
“How has the tax profession responded to concerns about its role in aiding tax avoidance and evasion? Where does it see the boundary between acceptable and unacceptable practice lie?”
From what I have seen from within the industry, there has been little or no movement on the underlying thinking of tax professionals, which goes something like this:
1. What is in the best interests of my client? Paying less tax, so long as the reputational costs are not too great.
2. How do I do that? Provide advice on what they are likely to get away with; continually explore new options and strategies which might work.
3. How do I know what they can get away with? Continually (a) lobby for detailed guidance and clarity from HMRC as to what will or will not be accepted (insist you do not object to the principle of clamping down on tax avoidance, just insist you want clarity for your clients who do not want to inadvertently break the rules); (b) lobby against any policies which include concepts such as ‘parliamentary intentions’ ‘abusive’ or ‘artificial’ as such policies are intrinsically difficult to game; and (c) publically complain about complexity while lobbying for a multitude of provisos and exceptions for particular circumstances, as increased complexity is better for the tax professions in providing opportunities and need for specialist advice and strategies.
Tax professionals, despite being at the forefront of abusive tax avoidance, are strangely unable to understand simple concepts such as ‘abusive’ or ‘intentions’ which the rest of the general public seem to grasp quite easily. Must be a bad case of Upton Sinclair’s maxim: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
I will publish what I have submitted on this asap
It is not very flattering to the profession