Oh gosh how surprising, you know how I said earlier this morning in relation to the Ed Lester tax avoidance debacle, that others using tax avoidance schemes would be outed in the coming days?
Well here's one I told you about (relating to an HMRC employee no less!) in July 2010:
"Congratulations to HMRC's ex Chief Information Officer, Deepak Singh, who according to ifaonline was paid £149,500 by HMRC to work three months (June 2009 - September 2009) after his leaving date.
Singh's 3 year (£160K per annum) contract ended in June last year.
However, HMRC persuaded him to stay on for another 3 months in the guise of his consulting company Orwell Consulting.
In the private sector, when headcounts are being reduced, a well known "fiddle" is to sack someone then rehire them as a consultant (thus avoiding them appearing in the headcount figures).
Needless to say, I am sure that this was not the intention or the case here.
One rather nice little benefit for Singh of this arrangement, is that he is only liable for corporation tax of up to 28% (editor update: I have subsequently been advised that the rate was in fact 21%) on his earnings for these 3 months, compared with the higher-rate of income tax of 40%.
I have no problem with tax avoidance. However, HMRC claims that it disapproves of it (when dealing with non HMRC staff)."
My oh my, this is proving to be a right old clusterfuck of hypocrisy isn't it?
More outings soon!
Tax does have to be taxing.
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No it was Corporation tax at 21% not 28%....
ReplyDeleteThanks Nicki I will update
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