I see that Lord Myners is venting his spleen about tax avoidance and offshore tax havens.
He has accused multinational companies, such as Starbucks, of leeching tax revenue from Britain to tax havens abroad and attacked accountants for allowing it to happen.
He is quoted in the
Telegraph:
"Corporation tax for an MNC (multinational company) operating in the UK is
close to being a voluntary payment. The problem is that the tax environment
many MNCs are interested in is a zero tax environment."
He suggests that a sales tax be imposed.
Don't we already have that in the guise of VAT?
As "interesting" and "stimulating" as Myners's views may be, I find them to be a tad hypocritical given that during the "halcyon" days of the Broone administration Myners was Financial Services Secretary to HMT (2008-2010). I would have thought that if he were so vexed about corporation tax avoidance then he would have said something, and indeed done something, when he had the opportunity.
Oh, and oddly enough, I see that he was
chairman of Aspen Insurance Holdings for 5 years, a Bermuda-based insurance company,
that managed to avoid more than £100M a year in tax. On top of that Myners was also chairman of Liberty Ermitage, an
offshore fund based in Jersey. For good measure, Gartmore, the fund
management company that Lord Myners chaired for 15 years, also ran a
Jersey-based offshore business.
The word hypocrite springs to mind!
Tax does have to be taxing.
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