HSBC subsidiary implicated in tax avoidance

[Ignitionnet]

What a shocker.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31248913
http://www.theguardian.com/business/...-hide-millions

Britain's biggest bank helped wealthy clients cheat the UK out of millions of pounds in tax, the BBC has learned.

Panorama has seen thousands of accounts from HSBC's private bank in Switzerland leaked by a whistleblower in 2007.

They show bankers helped clients evade tax and offered deals to help tax dodgers stay ahead of the law.

This is the same HSBC that settled a case of money laundering for drug barons, amongst others, in the US a couple of years back.

The UK is yet to even attempt to send any of these crooks to jail. This really needs to change. London is a financial cesspit in dire need of disinfection.

[richard s]

No surprise here then:

What about the wealthy clients paying back the Tax.

Ruddy Swiss banks.

[Osem]

The UK's tax office has said it was prevented by an international agreement from sharing information about HSBC's possible involvement in tax evasion.

HM Revenue & Customs was passed a horde of documents in 2010 from France about possible evasion by HSBC clients.

On Tuesday, MPs criticised the City watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority, for not knowing about the claims until media reports emerged.

One MP said the FCA could not operate effectively without knowing the facts.

But an HMRC spokesman later told the BBC that under a deal with France it could not share the information.

"We received the data under an international treaty agreement with France which had tight restrictions. We couldn't move it outside the department," the spokesman added.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31359962

[Taf]

http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2015/02/1...rime-minister/

[Osem]

The story which keeps on giving:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31425084

Top officials at HM Revenue & Customs have been shouted down by MPs, angry at their lack of urgency in dealing with the HSBC tax dodging scandal.

Margaret Hodge, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, accused Lin Homer, HMRC chief executive, of a "pathetic response".

Ms Homer denied she had failed to take firm action against UK citizens hiding money in HSBC accounts in Geneva.

She said it was "absolutely not the case" she was failing the UK taxpayer.

I seem to recall a certain Lin Homer being somewhat less than successful at the Home Office and Border Agency but there were other criticisms too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Homer

Some people do seem to get on in life don't they...

Meantime, Miliband's been making some pretty serious allegations and has been challenged to repeat claims he made about Lord Fink outside of Parliament, without the protection of parliamentary privilege.

At Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons, Mr Miliband called on Mr Cameron to say what steps he was going to take "to find out about the tax avoidance activities of Lord Fink".

'Local bank account'

In a letter to the Labour leader, Lord Fink said Mr Miliband's allegations, made under the protection of Parliamentary privilege, were "untrue and defamatory".

He said he had opened an account in Switzerland when he worked there because "I had need of a local bank account to do simple things like receive my Swiss franc salary and pay grocery bills".

"I find it extraordinary that you have made claims against me that are without foundation or without contacting me," wrote the peer.

"I challenge you to repeat your allegation outside the House of Commons - or to withdraw it publicly."

[Mr Angry]

Originally Posted by Taf

http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2015/02/1...rime-minister/

I see Lord Fink has now admitted tax avoidance in an interview with the Evening Standard and is backtracking on his threat to sue Miliband in his Guardian interview.

From the Guardian.

"This is what Ed Miliband is going to say about Lord Fink in his speech. Labour has released the text, and there does not seem to be an embargo on its use.

"Yesterday a Conservative donor challenged me to stand by what I said in the House of Commons.
I do.
David Cameron should say what steps he is going to take to find out about the tax avoidance activities of Lord Fink.
Because the use of trust arrangements to minimise tax otherwise payable, and sustained involvement with businesses linked to tax havens, amounts to tax avoidance in my book."

(If Cameron wants to find out about Fink’s tax avoidance activities, now, I suppose, he could just read the Evening Standard.)"

[nomadking]

How was he avoiding UK tax when he was living and working in Switzerland?

“My family and I paid tax on all the dividends, both in Switzerland and the UK.

[Mr Angry]

Originally Posted by nomadking

How was he avoiding UK tax when he was living and working in Switzerland?

It seems he used something called "vanilla tax avoidance measures".

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Mr Angry

It seems he used something called "vanilla tax avoidance measures".

That's alright then. Mint choc chip avoidance measures would've been too much.

[TheDaddy]

Lord Fink couldn't have had a more appropriate name

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fink

When one goes to the "tax advice" department of a bank or finace adviser, does he try to find advice how to give money back to Osborne? No surprise there...

Almost every bank in Singapore, Hong Kong has such a department, now that the Swiss are leaking. And they do not have to give any info back to EU/UK.

Who cares I mean no one will have any consequences from this so why bother get back to hammering benefit fraud and leave the wealthy alone.