Barclays to close 'tax avoidance' unit

[Sirius]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21397844

What shocks me is that they ran this unit in the first place.

Barclays is to close down a part of its business which helped clients avoid tax, the BBC understands.

The bank will still help clients with their tax arrangements on transactions, but will not engage in activities where the main purpose is to avoid tax.

I wonder how much tax the tax man did not recover because of this unit ?

[Osem]

I dare say many an accountacy firm has teams providing such advice.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Osem

I dare say many an accountacy firm has teams providing such advice.

We should have them closed as well

[denphone]

And about time too as there's nothing worse then Joe public paying their taxes while a minority of rich companies and people try to avoid paying theirs.

[Osem]

To close those operations down what they're doing would have to be made illegal. It's really up to HMG to set out unambiguously what's illegal and what isn't whilst at the same time ensuring UK PLC actually gets the tax revenue and it doesn't just get shifted abroad. Having said that, the courts would inevitably be involved and the whole process could easily become a protracted and hugely costly affair. The lawyers would not doubt get rich however...

---------- Post added at 10:36 ---------- Previous post was at 10:26 ----------

Originally Posted by denphone

And about time too as there's nothing worse then Joe public paying their taxes while a minority of rich companies and people try to avoid paying theirs.

In many cases Joe Public tries to do exactly what the big companies and rich folks do i.e. pay less tax (via things like ISA's or evading tax by failing to declare all their income). If the question is one of morality, are they any better?

Let's be honest about this, if a national tax service opened up offering ordinary Joe Public free advice on how to reduce their tax bills without breaking the law how many people would refuse to use it?

[danielf]

Originally Posted by denphone

And about time too as there's nothing worse then Joe public paying their taxes while a minority of rich companies and people try to avoid paying theirs.

Actually, there are many things that are far worse...

[mertle]

Originally Posted by Osem

I dare say many an accountacy firm has teams providing such advice.

according big 4 they denying it

Pigs fly says me

Hodge accuses them

Margaret Hodge, Labour MP for Barking, accused the senior tax partners of KPMG, Ernst & Young (E&Y), Deloitte and PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) of harming society by reducing the Exchequer’s tax take. She said the Big 4 had created 79 tax avoidance schemes in past 3 years.

There anyway we can stop them from hoovering up businesses. Can we even force them to break up there businesses. Would it actually solve the problem if we did ban multinational corporations and reduce there power.

Latest is ABF is at it now contributed virtually no corporation tax to the state's exchequer between 2007 and 2012, and none at all for two of those years. Got themselves nice like setup using Zambia. Investigation found that it funnels around a third of its pre-tax profits to sister companies in tax havens, including Ireland, Mauritius and the Netherlands.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...nt-tax-scandal

The more we dig would be shocked its not more widespread. They dont realise these actions effects there profits in the long term. They so self obsessed they dont realise low pay tax avoidance/evasion is pulling plughole of disposable cash to buy there products.

Love this blog about tax its not HMRC fault we want encourage multinatational businesses but at what cost. Small businesses unfairly disadvantaged.

http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2...-by-the-rules/

[denphone]

Originally Posted by danielf

Actually, there are many things that are far worse...

Indeed there is but we are are constantly being told from a higher above that we are in this all together.

Perhaps if we didnt have so many complicated unnecessary tax rules in the first place, then none of these teams would exist.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by denphone

Indeed there is but we are are constantly being told from a higher above that we are in this all together.

That will require Joe Public to follow the example and stop avoiding or evading their tax too then?

[Mr_love_monkey]

HMRC need to close down the loop holes, it's a simple as that.
If someone told me I could legally reduce the amount of tax I am paying, I would do it. I can't blame companies or people for doing this - why would you pay more than you have to?

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Paul M

Perhaps if we didn't have so many complicated unnecessary tax rules in the first place, then none of these teams would exist.

Or maybe it was not complicated in the beginning and canny lawyers and bankers got around it, now they have had to add new rules every day to try and keep ahead of those conning the tax man out of money

[Ramrod]

Originally Posted by Osem

I dare say many an accountancy firm has teams providing such advice.

If they are worth using......it's taken me years to find a decent accountancy firm like that

Originally Posted by Sirius

We should have them closed as well

Not if they are legal, and companies should do whatever they can to legally avoid paying tax

As the president of the CBI remarked of the agitation over taxes, "If you want different results, you have to have a different set of rules."

In thinking about these rules, politicians, and others concerned about the taxes companies pay, should remember the advice of two politicians of earlier generations. When he was chancellor of the exchequer, Nigel Lawson said that taxes should be "low, simple, and compulsory". Tax competition helps keep taxes low. If politicians want taxes to yield what they expect – want them to be compulsory – they should keep them simple, not make them so complex that the result is a surprise.

---------- Post added at 22:50 ---------- Previous post was at 22:40 ----------

Originally Posted by Sirius

now they have had to add new rules every day to try and keep ahead of those conning the tax man out of money

So says them man on a monthly wage (and I can understand why)
But those of us who are self employed, each pound paid to the tax man is a pound less in our pocket.......and when we look at the hard work we have put in to earn that pound(and consider the people who we employ and also pay wages to through our efforts), we think 'screw the tax man, we're going to give him only what he is legally entitled to claw from us'

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Ramrod

If they are worth using......it's taken me years to find a decent accountancy firm like that
Not if they are legal, and companies should do whatever they can to legally avoid paying tax



---------- Post added at 22:50 ---------- Previous post was at 22:40 ----------

So says them man on a monthly wage (and I can understand why)
But those of us who are self employed, each pound paid to the tax man is a pound less in our pocket.......and when we look at the hard work we have put in to earn that pound(and consider the people who we employ and also pay wages to through our efforts), we think 'screw the tax man, we're going to give him only what he is legally entitled to claw from us'

Sigh kpmg and pricewaterhouse aren't using legal methods and admit such themselves, they've admitted some of their more aggressive tax avoidance schemes will fail in court to clients but go ahead and try anyway, perhaps if their clients were presented with a hefty fine they'd be less likely to go along with such methods.

[Ramrod]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Sigh kpmg and pricewaterhouse aren't using legal methods and admit such themselves, they've admitted some of their more aggressive tax avoidance schemes will fail in court to clients but go ahead and try anyway, perhaps if their clients were presented with a hefty fine they'd be less likely to go along with such methods.

Indeed. They shouldn't be using them.....