{"id":11657,"date":"2011-08-25T15:43:43","date_gmt":"2011-08-25T14:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=11657"},"modified":"2011-08-25T18:55:18","modified_gmt":"2011-08-25T17:55:18","slug":"how-can-dave-hartnett-head-hmrc-when-he-utters-nonsense-like-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2011\/08\/25\/how-can-dave-hartnett-head-hmrc-when-he-utters-nonsense-like-this\/","title":{"rendered":"How can Dave Hartnett head HMRC when he utters nonsense like this?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Treasury press release on the Swiss deal is out<\/a>. Dave Hartnett, de facto boss of HMRC whose fingers are very obviously all over this deal says of it:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world has changed for tax evaders. A few years ago, nobody would have anticipated that we would conclude an agreement with Switzerland to tackle tax evasion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Absolute\u00a0nonsense: we already have the\u00a0European Union Savings Tax Directive and an upgrade was close to delivery. Please don't talk\u00a0rubbish\u00a0Dave.<\/p>\n

He continues:<\/p>\n

However, with the clear wish of Switzerland as well as the United Kingdom to ensure that tax is paid as it should be<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How he has the gall to say this is beyond belief: the Swiss have fought\u00a0every\u00a0attempt\u00a0to make sure\u00a0people\u00a0pay the right amount of tax - and still are. This deal is all about ensuring banking secrecy - whopse sole purpose always has been and is now to assista criminality - will\u00a0remain\u00a0intact, and it will. So Hartnett is simply not telling the truth.<\/p>\n

But he carries on:<\/p>\n

we are embarking on a new course which preserves important principles for each jurisdiction, and will be fair for all UK taxpayers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No it is not. Those people who have paid the right amount of tax, openly and\u00a0honestly\u00a0will be galled to know that the boss of HMRC is delighted that those who evaded can n ow pay much less than they ever owed in an honesty box with no names attached and can rest confortable knowing that as a result they will never be\u00a0prosecuted\u00a0for their crimes. They\u00a0shouldn't\u00a0be pleased: they should be very, very angry that HMRc is headed by someone who is so happy to let tax evaders off the hook and I am sure they are.<\/p>\n

Hartnett again:<\/p>\n

Our strategy is working.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That's the one of supporting the UK's tax havens is it Dave?<\/p>\n

We will secure significant sums of tax that some had thought we would never see.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh nonsense - the\u00a0European Union Savings Tax Directive could have delivered so much more.<\/p>\n

Not only does this agreement settle past liabilities and make arrangements to secure correct taxation in the future, it also gives HMRC more scope to find out about Swiss accounts.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now he's becoming ridiculous: we can ask about 500 a year but only if we can find out about them first. Fat chance Dave. You've just done a deal that guarantees anonymity.<\/p>\n

Hartnett's rapidly become the biggest liability in the history of the Revenue. Vodafone. Goldman Sachs. Now this.<\/p>\n

It's shocking that he's been allowed to lay waste to so much tax justice in such a short period of time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Treasury press release on the Swiss deal is out. Dave Hartnett, de facto boss of HMRC whose fingers are very obviously all over this
 Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107,63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hmrc","category-switzerland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}