As the Telegraph has reported tonight:
Britain is facing a £1.7billion fine from the EU for allowing criminal gangs to flood European black markets with illegal Chinese goods in a move that will add to tensions surrounding Brexit negotiations.
The European anti-fraud office, known as Olaf, has accused British customs officials failing crack down on gangs using fake invoices to make false claims about the value of shoes and goods.
It claimed that France, Germany, Spain and Italy have lost a combined £2.7billion in VAT revenues because of the failures of British customs officials.
Four thoughts. First of all, quite right too.
Second, that's what happens when you refuse to have sufficient Customs officers: for the sake of a ha'pence of spend a fortune is lost, as I have said countless times about HMRC cuts.
Third, I know that much more than this has been lost because of the failure of HMRC to monitor tax abuse on eBay and Amazon. I have seen the data, and so have HMRC, who have refused to do anything consequential about it. If this is how good we are at monitoring trade now heaven help us after Brexit.
Fourth, no wonder we have a tax gap, which HMRC massively underestimate.
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I find it puzzling – it is as if the current government (& the previous one) do not want to fulfill a basic function of government: the fair & efficienct collection of taxes. It is as if they are willfully refusing to do so. In turn this calls into question the competenece (at any level) of the Tories. My own view? unfit to even run a fish & chip shop & have been for more than a century.
I think you are right: they do not want to collect tax
If they did they could run an effective government and that is not the aim
As an HMRC employee, what can I say? Welcome to Britain’s post EU future, where criminals and the black market flourish while the rest of the economy and public services shrink due the effects of Brexit and austerity. Presumably if we’re out of the single market these criminals won’t be able to use the UK as a conduit into the rest of the EU, so it’ll just be good old Blighty that gets flooded with dangerous, shoddy and illegal products made by criminals.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Brexit morons spin this one. Will it be the ‘evil EU’ declaring war on us? Or the fault of the ‘useless public sector?’
Or maybe the right’s hatred of ‘red tape’ and their love of ‘free enterprise’ means they don’t care if this kind of fraud becomes widespread in our economy and society?
Bizarrely if they really loved enterprise they would ensure there was a level playing field
The fact they don’t do that shows they have no concern for stable, fair markets
I thank you for your comment and support your anger against a government deliberately undermining public service contrary to the public interest.
I do though, not understand, why pro Europeans do not see the contradictions in the actual policies of the EU, that is it is a corporate club working for it’s own interests against the people it is supposed to serve, just like Government here, we call it the Neo-Liberal agenda.
Whilst you rightly praise the actions of the European fraud office I would remind you that in time that would inevitably be overturned by those very same people under the legislation secretly being carried out in Europe under CETA or would have been with TTIP.
In saying this I did vote remain, but not because I believed in the EU as it is constituted, but because I did not want this distraction called Brexit, which diverts attention away from the truly criminal actions of these laissez-faire governments both sides of the channel.
Inside or outside the EU we still have Neo-Liberal governments dismantling our state, whilst we spend time arguing amongst ourselves they are busy carrying on the destruction of our public services and especially the NHS.
I do genuinely believe that we should look beyond the arguments posed by Theresa May and look afresh at what we see as a nation, there is a need for a country such as ours to lead the world out of the madness that has driven the whole world into an ongoing depression, we do still have the capability to produce a vision such as the post war Labour Party’s national health service, that could change the world.
As Richard himself understands, we know now how money creation is pivotal to recreating a society based on the needs of people, rather than becoming the slaves to bankers.
The EU as we saw with Greece (3% of Europe’s GDP) was crushed and had to capitulate rather than rescued from the ever crippling debt burden, that they can never pay back; Whilst at the same time Deutsche Bank that actually bankrupted Europe along with other German banks is receiving Quantitative Easing, under rule changes that they refuse to the Greek people.
So just as here we bail out the banks, but when we ask for money for our public services, suddenly we are broke.
I am not sure why you think this decision would inevitably be overturned
As a result I do not follow your logic
In saying so I am not defending the abuses you refer to
At a recent lunch for retired HM Customs and Excise colleagues we were musing over the implications of Brexit and jokingly we concluded we should apply to go back as consultants on £250 a day to help the Department process the huge increase in import export and Customs tariff work that will arise as there will be hardly any existing staff left in HMRC with experience of those regimes !
You need a lesson on charging
£250?
I second Richard, Old Codger. Those of us still left in HMRC when the UK leaves (or should that be crashes out of?) the EU will probably welcome you back with open arms.
But don’t sell yourselves short for God’s sake! You should be thinking of charging at least £1000/day for your expertise. Given the way civil servants have been treated in the last few years, take the ****** to the cleaners.
After all, you can be sure any private sector consultants involved in Brexit will charge an absolute fortune for their ‘expertise’, so why shouldn’t you?
The usual suspects will be £1,000-£1,500 per day minimum and that will be just for a gopher with little real knowledge or experience. The senior consultants and partners will be expecting multi-thousands per day
Licking their lips in anticipation I suspect
Agreed
They are ‘very clever people’
[…] Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK has written: “That’s what happens when you refuse to have sufficient Customs officers: for the sake of a ha’pence of spend a fortune is lost, as I have said countless times about HMRC cuts. I know that much more than this has been lost because of the failure of HMRC to monitor tax abuse on eBay and Amazon. I have seen the data, and so have HMRC, who have refused to do anything consequential about it. If this is how good we are at monitoring trade now heaven help us after Brexit.” […]
Sad thing is most of the electorate wouldn’t know what to look for to elect a competent government!
A lot of things are being brushed under the carpet lately by the Tories, I think that this will be as well.
They will soon need a bigger brush, and a bigger carpet.