{"id":19148,"date":"2013-02-05T15:55:09","date_gmt":"2013-02-05T15:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=19148"},"modified":"2013-02-05T15:55:09","modified_gmt":"2013-02-05T15:55:09","slug":"why-oh-why-wont-governments-take-on-tax-evasion-i-am-continually-baffled-by-their-refusal-to-do-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2013\/02\/05\/why-oh-why-wont-governments-take-on-tax-evasion-i-am-continually-baffled-by-their-refusal-to-do-so\/","title":{"rendered":"Why, oh why, won’t governments take on tax evasion? I am continually baffled by their refusal to do so"},"content":{"rendered":"

The EU has this afternoon issued deeply\u00a0disappointing\u00a0new guidance <\/a>on the laws it expects member states to put in place to tackle tax evasion and money laundering\u00a0through\u00a0the use of limited companies and trusts.<\/p>\n

An EU study had suggested that the best way to ensure that companies and trusts could\u00a0not\u00a0be used for money laundering abuse and tax evasion of the ort my research and that of others has shown to be possible was to put on\u00a0public\u00a0record the true\u00a0beneficial\u00a0ownership of those companies and who stood to really\u00a0benefit\u00a0from the trusts. The same report also said this was the\u00a0most\u00a0cost effective way to deal with this issue.<\/p>\n

The EU has rejected this advice. It is only requiring that a company must\u00a0itself\u00a0prove who owns it, which is absurd: if it is being used for criminal purpose this requirement will simply be ignored! To say that this utterly misses the point of the demand for information is to massively understate the degree by which the EU has missed the mark on this issue.<\/p>\n

Worse still, it seems that the new rules will not provide any\u00a0effective\u00a0mechanism\u00a0for tackling those who assist tax evasion by the provision of professional services to companies used for that purpose.<\/p>\n

I'm left, as is so often the case now, asking the obvious question of why it is that\u00a0governments\u00a0are so reluctant to take on the issue of tackling crime when tax crime is one of the biggest crime\u00a0activities\u00a0there is (costing the EU states about \u00e2\u201a\u00ac850 billion a year) and the implications of it are apparent to all of us as Europe continues to face austerity that would be\u00a0unnecessary\u00a0if only the taxes that are due were paid.<\/p>\n

It's a great afternoon for tax evaders. It's bad for all the rest of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The EU has this afternoon issued deeply\u00a0disappointing\u00a0new guidance on the laws it expects member states to put in place to tackle tax evasion and money
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