Tax avoidance scheme of the week 27 Nov
I wasn't intending to make this a weekly feature but circumstances have intervened!This week though we're back in the UK - well almost. The scheme in question was one intended to avoid Stamp Duty. The amount of Duty at stake? £54 million.This was the amount of Stamp Duty that would otherwise have been payable in 2003 when HBOS undertook a transaction with AIG. HBOS set up of a holding company in the Cayman Islands and, surprise, surprise, HMRC argued that this set up was nothing more than a “ruse to avoid tax”.In April, Britain's fir

Tax avoidance scheme of the week
This week we highlight reports of the latest turn of events of a non-UK tax scheme as the amounts involved are just so huge. The scheme involves Switzerland's No. 1 private bank, UBS, which, in February agreed to pay $780m (£547m) to the US authorities to avoid a criminal prosecution for helping thousands of wealthy Americans avoid tax by hiding their money in secret bank accounts.SwissInfo today contains a report titled:

Equitable liability to become a statutory right
One of the challenges of writing this blog is that I'm unable to cover all areas of tax policy. One development that I chose not to address earlier this year concerns the concept of equitable liability.What is it? It's a concession that can be applied by HMRC such that a taxpayer need only pay what is fair and reasonable despite legally owing much more than this. Thus, in certain tightly defined circumstances HMRC will, by concession, accept that only an ‘equitable liability’ be settled rather than the full amount of income tax or corporation tax that is legally due from a taxpayer. In agreeing an 'equitable liability' HMRC normally accept the evidence of time-barred retur

Wives of promoters of Vantis tax scheme also facing charges
I was shocked to note that the wives of the two Vantis directors who are accused of organising a multi-million pound tax scam appeared in Court yesterday along with their husbands. The wives are accused of involvement in their husbands' dealings.This follows the reports last month about which I wrote on the TaxBuzz blog here: Vantis tax advisers to face charges of “cheating" re ta

Offshore bank accounts - HMRC warning video
Remember, remember the 30th of November. That's the deadline for notifying HMRC that you intend to come clean if you have any previously undeclared income from offshore investments.I referenced this "New Disclosure Opportunity" (NDO) in an earlier post on the TaxBuzz blog: 5 tax facts and advice if you have an offshore bank account.HMRC had originally provided a similar opportunity to come clean and pay reduced penalties in 2007. This followed from the access HMRC had secured to information about offshore bank accounts held with the five main high-street banks in the UK thro