Third, poll after poll shows overwhelming public support for a tax on bankers’ bonuses; a mansion tax on multimillion-pound properties; a windfall levy on the oil and utility companies; a Robin Hood tax on financial transactions; and a one-off wealth tax of 20% on the richest 10% of households (which would raise a whopping £800bn [...]
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Under UK tax rules, any non-resident athlete performing in Britain is subject to income tax on both their appearance fee and any associated worldwide endorsement payments. However, Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury, said the Government has decided to waive the rule to attract the best talent to the Games. It is not the [...]
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“Tax provides the funding to run the country: hospitals, schools and everything else,” he says. “Every time someone pays cash in order not to pay VAT, the nation gets diddled.” The nation is not the government, the nation is not the government finances. The nation contains within it the government, of course, contains the government [...]
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Coalition plans to raise the income tax allowance to £10,000 should be accelerated to tackle the growing economic crisis, Nick Clegg will say. Actually, you need to be even braver than this. And steal a real political march on those to the left of you. Annouce that the minimum wage, full time, full year, is [...]
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Help me out here. Isn’t it so low because he gives money to charity, the US system allowing such donations to reduce your tax bill?
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Sorry Nick, no, this isn’t true. That treasure trove is the $3.1tn of tax, equivalent to 5.1% of global GDP, which according to international campaign group Tax Justice Network is illegally evaded in 145 countries, covering 98.2% of the world’s population. That’s Ritchie’s report that is. The majority of these flows are washed through tax [...]
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From Mr. Dillow. One possible answer is that Mr. Murphy can indeed pay higher taxes voluntarily simply by sending a cheque to the Treasury. So set the statutory rates at what I think acceptable and let those who wish to pay more do so.
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When someone tells us he’s going to give us the real skinny always worth looking to see what he’s leaving out so as to mislead. The point is this: we will always have big deficits as long as tax policy is radically different from the post-second world war average until about 1981. And Republicans now [...]
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While the Institute of Fiscal Studies has argued that the 50pc top rate of income tax does not raise much revenue after increased avoidance is taken into account, the new HMRC figures indicate otherwise. They may also suggest one reason why the Government has recently put plans to scrap the top rate on hold. Err, [...]
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Income tax payments hit record high of £153bn Income tax receipts hit an all-time high of more than £153bn last year, with VAT and most drink and tobacco duties also reaching new peaks, according to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). Isn’t it a surprise? With inflation at 5% or so nominal tax paid rises. Who [...]
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His comments follow the revelation that Barclays has stockpiled billions of pounds of “losses” to reduce future tax bills, despite not having made a loss at group level for over a decade. They also come shortly after the pledge by Bob Diamond, Barclays’ chief executive, for “banks to be better citizens”. He then goes on [...]
I’m sure that this is something that will surprise many. The UK actually has the most progressive income tax system among the G-8 economies. You can also get some interesting information about progressivity from the two charts. A rough measure of that is the difference in the (average) tax rate shown on the two charts. [...]
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Come along now, you used to edit a newspaper. But fairness cuts both ways. Today’s report on the tax leniency shown by the Revenue towards big corporations indicates that toughness towards the poor is not replicated by toughness towards the rich. The estimate was of some £25bn in taxes gone missing, the bulk of it [...]
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The permanent secretary has already said he will retire, but the rot at the top reaches beyond one individual. The priority must be to bring in non-executive directors who can speak for taxpayers, workers and civil society and challenge those of the over-represented voice of the business world – and make sure it pays its [...]
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Largely politicians grandstanding in ignorance. I have particularly liked the way they go on about how HMRC must be independent, seen to be independent and impartial, then insist that HMRC shouldn’t keep the tax matters of individuals (personal or corporate) confidential from politicians. Politicians who would, never, ever, be anything less than entirely impartial when [...]
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We are particularly uneasy about the blanket confidentiality applied to cases raising governance concerns or where mistakes were made in reaching settlements, because we are unable to scrutinise what went wrong in these cases. Details of some of these cases only came to our attention because they appeared in the media. It is deplorable that [...]
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In one case, we sought information on the details of a settlement in which an error had been made with the effect that the company concerned did not have to pay interest due on its tax liability. The C&AG told us that this resulted in a loss of up to £8 million in interest forgone. [...]
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Tax disputes between HM Revenue & Customs (the Department) and large companies are a consequence of the complex and international nature of modern business. Disputes can arise about the facts of a particular case, about the interpretation and application of tax law, and about the legitimacy of tax avoidance schemes. At 31 March 2011, the [...]
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In the interests of full disclosure I should say that I’ve paid tax at the 50% rate ever since it was introduced. I may not do so in the 2012-13 tax year. I can tell you that there’s a psychological impact from direct taxes exceeding half your marginal earnings: it’s OK for you not to [...]
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