Lloyds finds itself the centre of some unwelcome media and HMRC attention this week, following a Panorama report that showed the bank was helping people avoid paying tax.
The fact that tax avoidance is perfectly legal seems to have passed the media by, yet again.
However, of greater concern is Hartnett's reaction to the fact that Lloyds "brainstorms" to "get round taxes".
"Brainstorming in the context you've just used suggests to me some complex arrangement for tax avoidance. Or, worse still, potentially facilitating tax evasion … We simply cannot tolerate that sort of behaviour."
Tax evasion is illegal, and Hartnett is quite correct to state that HMRC should not tolerate it. However, to lump avoidance in with evasion is misleading, and Hartnett knows that.
Tax does have to be taxing.
Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations
What is TAXWISE?
TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.
To find out more, please use this link Taxwise
Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.
Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies
HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"
We all understand where you are coming from, but as with the recent MP's saga if it's within "The Rules" does not make it morally correct.
ReplyDelete"The fact that tax avoidance is perfectly legal seems to have passed the media by, yet again."
ReplyDeleteA lot of reasonable person's thinking seems to bypass the media these days.
Every little news story is worthy of a Purlitzer-earning minute by minute update and the media wont let go of it until after they have milked every last drop of possible gain from it.... even to the point of covering the "everyone is still talking about {subject} when there really isn't anything worth saying anymore! story.
Just look at this Baroness Scotland fiasco... its simply an employer who made a mistake - she hasn't denied that she made the mistake, she isn't fighting the fine - but the media won't bloody shut up about it. I know its Ironic (and was even funny for about 2 minutes) but this should have been like a five minite news story and I've heard about this for a week constantly.