Thursday, November 20, 2014

Catalogue of Surreal Moments During Taxing Times

Tax attorney used IDs of dead children to avoid taxes  (18 Nov 2014)

Tax officials wrongly calculated their own performance to make it look as if they had recouped nearly £2bn more in unpaid taxes than they actually had, MPs have revealed in a highly critical report into HM Revenue & Customs.
The spectacular blunder meant HMRC’s performance was massively overstated in its 2011-12 and 2012-13 annual reports, and as recently as May this year in a separate publication about its achievements, the Public Accounts Committee has disclosed.
MPs slam the taxman blunder & catalogue failures

Only a fraction of tax arrangements by large business were successfully litigated because companies such as Chevron were able to devote resources to fighting the ATO. In comparison smaller taxpayers could not Unequal treatment of small businesses / lack of level playing fields


UK House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts Report: HMRC’s progress in improving tax compliance and preventing tax avoidance (18 Nov 2014)

G20 takes first step to tackle anonymous company ownership  (17 Nov 2014)

Tax traffic lights 2014: Country rating system on tax (17 Nov 2014)

HSBC's private banking arm accused of tax fraud by Belgium  (17 Nov 2014)

Tech hub: France becomes new tax haven for R&D firms  (18 Nov 2014)