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28 Apr 2006
I'm not even going to attempt to join in the debate on tax evasion and avoidance currently taking place on the TS blog.
But I can offer the following. Anyone interested in reading more about Murphy, his website is of interest. At the risk of alienating those who complain about my fellow AA blogger and I only referencing Accountancy Age stories, here's a piece we wrote on him.
Teather's book can be downloaded as a pdf here.
And one question to everyone involved in this debate. It's time the tax profession came up with a credible defence of some of the more extreme things it does. Is Teather's approach the right one? Are advisers going to continue taking a passive approach to the question of tax havens, abusive avoidance and even evasion (I've never met a tax avoider. At least, most advisers I meet profess, unconvincingly, to having nothing personally to do with it)?
One lighter question. Who at ACCA is going to chair this debate on June 6th?
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Visitor comments Add your comment
Alex - if you can get Damian to authorise the Easyjet return fare to|Alicante, I can introduce you to any number of people who are/have avoided tax. British, German and Dutch and of course Spanish. How many do you need for a good story given that you won't get their proper name but - hey who said you could have it all? Bonus: I'll lob in some of the best tapas you'll find in Spain. And no - I ain't one - been a legit French resident for many years, transitioning to Spanish residence. And no hidden cameras :)
In the early 90s I was active in creating tax avoidance schemes in conjunction with the then Arthur Anderson. In those days, there was a tacit acceptance - get the steps right, ensure commercial reality and you're pretty much there. Today's a lot different. I've written about that at my place.
To the more substantive point. When you have KPMG slapped with a $456 million fine for selling illegal tax schemes, asking for time to pay when it took in $15.6 BILLION in fees last year, gleefully trumpeting much of the rise was compliance related then there is something not quite right.
The problem comes in 4 complementary flavours - tutti frutti style:
1. A state of war between pros and HMRC - look at HMRC triumphalism at M&S/Halifax and the dogged pursuit of crazy interpretations like Arctic Systems - see also Nichola Ross Martin (for Arctic litigants) - triumphal too.
2. A government politically motivated to tinker through stealth taxes and ill-advised tweaks rather than radical and unequivocal change that reflects today's economic need.
3. A highly developed avoidance profession tuned in to any weakness in legislation
4. Murphy's tax gap report that none of the Big Four has managed to explain away to anyone's satisfaction.
Posted by: Dennis Howlett, 28 Apr 2006 | 21:35
Very good of you to admit to your tax avoiding past, Dennis. Did you really never get involved in any 'schemes'? The thirty step, tax loss, paperwork only-type tax planning? I'm thinking it would be good to have a running column here about that sort of thing. The Independent runs a 'my worst mistake' column for journalists. I think a 'my most embarrassing tax scheme' column would be good for tax advisers.
Obviously there'd be a few problems with that, but if anyone wants to post anonymously...
Posted by: Alex Hawkes, 03 May 2006 | 15:28
Alex
It would be good if the profession could explain why avoidance is acceptable
It would be even better if they would follow the rules of professional ethics and fund research to show why it is contrary to professional standards of conduct
Any takers?
Richard
Posted by: Richard Murphy, 10 May 2006 | 13:59
Been off the radar for a while. Tsk, tsk Alex, I'll not be tempted into treading on that particular banana skin and am not one of those who hidews behind anonymity.
Remember I'm going back 13-15 years, when buying gold bars for a day, container leases and any other number of exotic wheezes were considered perfectly acceptable and legitimate fare at year end. And that's before we look at corporate structures involving offshore trusts pre-incorporation, pre-contract etc etc when those types of arrangement were never challenged but accepted as within the law.
Today, it seems any form of tax mitigation is regarded as a no-no. The whole thing is getting out of hand. On both sides.
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