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In what way is avoiding tax through a legal vehicle guilty of a crime? Do you volunteer extra tax when you don't have to? Tax avoidance/tax efficiency is not
by ZenPro 12y ago
In what way is avoiding tax through a legal vehicle guilty of a crime?
Do you volunteer extra tax when you don't have to?
Tax avoidance/tax efficiency is not tax evasion.
- matthewmacleod 12y agoI'm pretty sure that in the UK, participants in tax avoidance schemes are required to log details of them with HMRC under the DOTAS (Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes) rules. There are a variety of tests which determine whether or not a particular arrangement is disclosable.
- ZenPro 12y agoYou do now. You didn't have to then. My father in law is a senior partner in a national accountancy firm. He refers to it is as the Jimmy Carr disclosure.
- UVB-76 12y agoI did not say Jimmy Carr admitted criminal wrongdoing. I am well aware of the distinction between tax avoidance and tax evasion, but in many jurisdictions (including the UK) there is legislation that also renders tax avoidance schemes illegal if the arrangements are sufficiently artificial or abusive. Since the Carr affair, HMRC have implemented the General Anti-Abuse Rule (GAAR). Although it has not, to my knowledge, been tested at a tax tribunal, I am fairly confident the arrangement Carr entered into would be deemed abusive under this new legislation.
- ZenPro 12y agoPrevious comment used the term legally guilty. You then referenced Jimmy Carr as an example and used the words guilty inferring legal and moral guilt. He was guilty of neither but he had a public persona to protect and admit wrongdoing where none existed. If subsequent legislation attempts to limit TAS with the "fair admittance" rule of checking the box it has no retrospective bearing on the conduct of Jimmy Carr.