Tax Plus Blog - Under debate

Tax avoidance has been the subject of particular press coverage and comment for over a year now and the Budget brings together “the largest package of anti avoidance measures ever”.  There are various announcements on specific targeted areas such as partnerships and certain IHT points where the Government consider these have been used in marketed tax avoidance schemes.  These sit alongside the new General Anti Abuse Rule (GAAR), which is due to come into force, and are against a backdrop and environment of encouraging disclosure where clients may have become used to enjoying confidentiality in shielding...

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Last year the Chancellor announced a number of measures targeted at high value properties (defined as worth more than £2m) owned by non natural persons (NNP). A NNP is defined as a company, a collective investment scheme or a partnership where one or more members is a company. A trust is not a NNP. The key measures in brief: Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) is payable at 15% where a non natural person acquires a UK property worth more than £2m. An annual tax charge (ARPT) will be levied if residential property worth more than £2m is owned...

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It was snowing this morning when I left home and, appropriately, there was a flurry of announcements in the Autumn statement but the question is – to stretch the metaphor - how many of these will stick?  The main noise was surrounding the on-going campaign to tackle evasion and aggressive avoidance. There is a continuing conflation of these terms which makes it very hard to distinguish the correct path. HMRC has not had its budget cut and there is a promise of 2,500 specialist Inspectors in an offshore evasion unit and an expansion of the “Affluence unit” dealing...

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No new tax on homes.  A victory for the Chancellor on this point! There is no news yet on the proposed annual charge on high value residential properties in ‘envelopes’ and  we are waiting to see what is in the detail next week.  I am leading many enquires on this matter. Have you got a Swiss bank account? If so, do HMRC know about it? If not, well, time is running out. The government expects to receive £6bn over the next 5 years from previously undisclosed Swiss accounts. It will not be possible to hide...

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Before we can all get too excited about Christmas we have the Autumn statement to look forward to. The Chancellor will present his speech on 5 December and the big question is what will he say? Commentators appear to vary between thinking that he will not say very much and that there will be hugely significant changes. In my view the answer will be that he won't say much about tax but what he does say will need attention. I think with the recent furore around tax avoidance it is inevitable that there will be announcements relating to the prevention...

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There has been a lot of noise in recent months about the possibility of a wealth tax in the UK. The wealth tax often conflated with the idea of a mansion tax has long been a feature of Napoleonic regimes but in the UK, where house prices are both high and volatile, there is not the necessary correlation between available income and value of real property held to make such a tax practical. There has also always been a resistance to dry taxes that is a charge unsupported by incoming funds income with which to pay it. Over the weekend,...

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The official journal of the EU has recently published an opinion on tax and financial havens, i.e. tax havens.  I have to say the journal is worth reading, primarily for the rhetoric.  Whilst it is accepted that governments to do not normally like tax havens, some of the phraseology is interesting, for example: “2.1 Tax havens are places where senior executives of the world’s largest financial and industrial corporations mix with figures from the artistic or social ‘jet-set’, together with multi-millionaires who combine business with pleasure.  They all rub shoulders with somewhat...

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In this Summer edition of Tax Plus, we are delighted to bring you a selection of topical tax issues. Since our March 2012 Budget Special edition, we have seen further details from the government on pre-announced measures due to come into effect from April 2013. The most controversial of these is the plan to tax ownership of residential properties held within certain structures and we have prepared an article on this to explore the implications for you in greater detail. We also have articles on other government announcements in relation to placing additional PAYE obligations on certain companies and resurrecting the Statutory...

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The BBC reports on the set up of the Office of Tax Simplification (OST). We are pleased to see this and the tax policy document issued at the time of the emergency Budget. Both the document and the objectives of the OST make pleasant reading and it is to be hoped that the aims are fulfilled. As I observed in my article in Taxation magazine there will be a huge benefit for everyone if the tax system can be made to work in a better way. We will be watching carefully and responding to consultations where appropriate and we will...

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We are pleased to announce that Mercer & Hole has been ranked in 'Private Client Practitioner' magazine's inaugural top 25 chartered accountants ranking. We appear in March's edition of 'Private Client Practitioner'. Private clients form an important part of the work undertaken by Mercer & Hole. We work closely with high net worth individuals, directors of businesses, family trustees, owners of private estates and other private clients to provide tailored solutions for individuals. To find out how we can assist with personal financial matters, please contact a member of the Private Client team.   ...

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