{"id":3589,"date":"2009-04-13T12:43:59","date_gmt":"2009-04-13T10:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2009\/04\/13\/deconstructing-mike\/"},"modified":"2009-04-13T12:43:59","modified_gmt":"2009-04-13T10:43:59","slug":"deconstructing-mike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2009\/04\/13\/deconstructing-mike\/","title":{"rendered":"Deconstructing Mike"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.conferencesandtraining.com\/en\/speakers\/Mike-Warburton\/\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Warburton<\/a> of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.grant-thornton.co.uk\/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Grant Thornton<\/a> is a regular sparring partner of mine. <\/p>\n<p>I note was quoted in <a href=\"http:\/\/business.timesonline.co.uk\/tol\/business\/industry_sectors\/banking_and_finance\/article6082939.ece\" target=\"_blank\">the article<\/a> on Panama I <a href=\"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2009\/04\/13\/panama-holds-out\/\" target=\"_blank\">referred to<\/a> earlier today. That said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Mike Warburton, senior tax partner at Grant Thornton, said that they would prompt concern that individuals intent on evading tax might simply move their money. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;People intent on illegally evading their taxes will move their money to places prepared to take it,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Let&rsquo;s just consider what Mike actually means. What he&rsquo;s saying is that there&rsquo;s no point in tackling tax evasion because people can always move their cash to do it somewhere else. The corollary, and no doubt what he means is \u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201e\u00c3\u00b2so let&rsquo;s let them carry on doing it wherever they want&rsquo;. I don&rsquo;t see another possible interpretation.<\/p>\n<p>Grant Thornton are, of course, a major supplier of tax haven services. They even have an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gt.com.pa\/site\/index.php\" target=\"_blank\">operation in Panama<\/a>. Squeaky clean, no doubt, but did you declare your interest in this issue as a result before commenting Mike as professional ethics might require you to do?<\/p>\n<p>And did you say you benefit from the perpetuation of tax haven abuse Mike to make sure no one could have any doubt about your position?<\/p>\n<p>Somehow I doubt it.<\/p>\n<p>So much for the \u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201e\u00c3\u00b2objectiveness&rsquo; of the profession&rsquo;s chosen commentators. <\/p>\n<p>PS Grant Thornton <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theyworkforyou.com\/mp\/george_osborne\/tatton#register\" target=\"_blank\">fund George Osborne&rsquo;s<\/a> private office. Another reason why the Tories don&rsquo;t favour tax haven reform, maybe?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mike Warburton of Grant Thornton is a regular sparring partner of mine. I note was quoted in the article on Panama I referred to earlier<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2009\/04\/13\/deconstructing-mike\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/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":[26,96,80,55,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accounting","category-conservatives","category-secrecy-jurisdictions","category-tax-evasion","category-tax-havens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3589","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=3589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3589\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}