{"id":4985,"date":"2009-10-02T14:50:54","date_gmt":"2009-10-02T12:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2009\/10\/02\/when-is-a-tax-illegal\/"},"modified":"2009-10-02T14:50:54","modified_gmt":"2009-10-02T12:50:54","slug":"when-is-a-tax-illegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2009\/10\/02\/when-is-a-tax-illegal\/","title":{"rendered":"When is a tax illegal?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Well, when it&rsquo;s ruled so by a relevant body.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/business\/2009\/oct\/01\/stamp-duty-reserve-tax-ruling\" target=\"_blank\">EU did that to the UK yesterday<\/a>. Mark Lee offers a <a href=\"http:\/\/taxadvicenetwork.blogspot.com\/2009\/10\/uk-tax-law-ruled-illegal-by-eu-court.html\" target=\"_blank\">thoughtful analysis here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So, the UK has made a mistake. And it could cost \u00a320bn \u2014 a 10% increase in the deficit \u2014 20% of the cost of the NHS for a year.<\/p>\n<p>To enrich banks.<\/p>\n<p>I think some counter-measure is needed in the public interest. And I know the libertarians will scream and shout. And my answer is that the EU also has a concept of \u00e2\u20ac\u0161\u00c3\u201e\u00c3\u00b2unjust enrichment&rsquo;. I think that should apply here. <\/p>\n<p>For more than 20 years stamp duty reserve tax has been paid: few objected \u2014 and why should they when the charge is eminently reasonable? But HSBC has now. And the UK government has been found to have made an error.<\/p>\n<p>At the very least a time limit for past claims has to be imposed. I really can&rsquo;t see a significant tax increase to pay tax refunds to banks is going to go down well with any politician right now.<\/p>\n<p>But let&rsquo;s also go the heart of this: the EU dedication to the free movement of capital is at fault here. Why should there be that right when people do not share it, universally?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, when it&rsquo;s ruled so by a relevant body. The EU did that to the UK yesterday. Mark Lee offers a thoughtful analysis here. So,<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2009\/10\/02\/when-is-a-tax-illegal\/\"><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":[44,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-tax-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4985","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=4985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}