HMRC job losses have undermined tax collection

[MrSmith]

Wrong. The majority of this will be sitting idle in tax havens by now, and be absolutely no good to our economy whatsoever. Which is another reason why it was absolutely stupid to cut the higher tax rate. If the equivalent had been given to those worse off, it would definitely be circulating in our economy, at least for a while before it all landed in the hands of the super rich.

 

Did anyone see the documentary last week on 'tax loopholes'? They proved the situation is worse than ever it was, thanks to the Condems.

 

They don't specify where the extra tax would have come from but it’s more likely that its lots of small amounts from the thousands of businesses that don't use tax havens. If it was a few large amounts from big companies they would collect it.

[HotPhil]

If it was a few large amounts from big companies they would collect it.

Unless they owe several billion like it seemed Vodafone did.

[MrSmith]

Unless they owe several billion like it seemed Vodafone did.

 

What’s that got to do with HMRC claiming they don't have the staff to collect tax?

[L00b]

Did anyone see the documentary last week on 'tax loopholes'? They proved the situation is worse than ever it was, thanks to the Condems.

If it was the Panorama documentary you are referring to, I watched it out of curiosity as McIntyre went 'digging' in Luxembourg. I spent quite a bit of time there myself, ran a business there for a couple of years, and know a fair bit about its tax, commercial and employment legislation, and related corporate advantages.

 

McIntyre did not prove anything.

 

All he did was a less-than-insightful piece (and seemingly quite poorly researched) on (legal) corporate structuring for (legal) tax efficiency, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the Condems, or even NuLabour for that matter. And which did not reach any conclusions, other than a few catchy, somewhat misleading soundbites.

 

There's sweet FA HMRC can do about these, and that's been the same (not only for HMRC, but tax authorities of most developed/developing nations) for the last 20+ years. And they all know it, and have known it for at least as long, if not since Matusalleh.

 

It's part and parcel of why the goods and services you buy everyday are cheaper than they would otherwise be without this structuring (considerations of profit maximisation duly taken into account). E.g. on Amazon, not to name one of the highest-profile 'culprits'. In other words, the way of the economic world since about year dot.

 

"Investigative" journalism? Don't make me laugh!