Tag Archives: Richard Branson

Opinion: George Osborne and tax evasion what’s trending? via Storify – John Gelmini

November 6, 2013 By in Business Administration, Fiscal Policy, George Osborne, People, Politics, UK Tags: , , , , , , , 3 Comments
HM Revenue & Customs

HM Revenue & Customs (Photo credit: jam_90s)

The answer to Dr Alf’s perfectly reasonable question is because George Osborne has large numbers of friends engaged in paying as little tax as possible and because he knows that if he starts to tackle tax evasion by multinationals (practically all of them), that they will re-base themselves in more tax efficient locations, as Sir Richard Branson, Sir Ralph Halpern, Sir Philip Green, David Coulthard, the former racing driver, Glaxo Smith Kline, the Barclay Brothers, Lord Vestey, Union International Group, Hanson Trust and most of the top media groups have already done.

State Street, the American company tasked by the Government to manage the funds in Stakeholder Pensions under “Auto Enrollment”, are based in the Dublin Financial District as are HSBC, BT PLC, Facebook, Linked In, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Mandiant and a host of British and American companies who “book sales” in Eire rather than the UK.

I have seen the buildings myself, earlier in the Summer, during a short Citybreak yet the Government did nothing because they knew that these companies had been secretly promised just 3% Corporation Tax by the Irish Government.

HMRC does nothing because they lack the trained staff capable of out-thinking Big 4 accountancy practices and because they themselves use offshore special purpose vehicles devised by PWC and KPMG for their own buildings (See Private Eye editions and Google Mapeley Steps in Bermuda).

Then, there is the revolving door between the Big 4 and HMRC, whereby on one day a Big 4 partner will be devising aggressive tax avoidance schemes and on another he or she is working for HMRC as a poacher turned gamekeeper.

Whilst they “game-keep” to close down the first set of schemes, their colleagues devise many more new ones in such quantity that HMRC could never keep up.

It is the civilized version of Krupp and Sir Basil Zaharoff working to produce armor-piercing shells to a South American dictatorship on one day, and then selling tough armor plate to the rivals of those countries for use on battleships.

The system works in reverse as people like Dave Harnett the former CEO of the HMRC advise multinationals on tax avoidance.

Whilst working for HMRC before this, he let Vodaphone off a £6 billion gbp tax bill against the legal advice of HMRC’s lawyers and refused to talk about this and companies like Eon who have not paid any Corporation Tax for the past 8 years according to Margaret Hodge at the Public Accounts Committee.

For the super wealthy and large multinationals, tax is optional and unless you get Global Governance, a single currency for the whole world and global tax enforcement it will always be like that despite all the huffing,puffing and mock indignation by politicians.

The late Leona Helmsley put it best “Little people pay taxes”.

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Opinion: Boots owner Alliance ‘uses havens to save £1.1bn in corporation tax’ – ex Independent – John Gelmini

October 17, 2013 By in Business Administration, Business Strategy, Politics, UK Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

Dr Alf’s simple concept, simple question, and call for the UK Government to action what appears to be obvious belies the true position.

 

To begin with, Osborne, Cameron et al, are in thrall to multinational businesses who pay very little tax and are not prepared to upset them by doing business with smaller local firms.

 

This is why the Government spends £12 billion gbp a year on Big 4 management consultants and systems integration houses like IBM Global Services, whilst spending less than 8% on all other consultancies and interim management providers COMBINED.

 

That same percentage applies to all other Government contracts, including those for NHS provision despite the fact that there is supposedly a 25% target for Government Departments to deal with home-grown and smaller UK businesses.

 

Secondly, the larger businesses have CEOs who are donors to the major political parties and who are personal friends of Government Ministers, officials and Civil Service Mandarins, either through school, Oxbridge or by dint of membership of certain secret societies.

 

Ordinary people, even those who have built larger businesses are normally not part of this charmed circle, and are probably regarded as stupid for paying their full share of taxes, whilst the people within the charmed circle pay nothing or next to nothing.

 

For all their rhetoric, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats are exactly the same because they know that if they upset these large firms they can base themselves in a tax haven just as Sir Richard Branson has done only last week.

 

Those firms that are based here and the people who are working are effectively “milch cows” to be put through an “olive press” far more effective than Don Croce’s fictional one in the Mario Puzo novel and even William the Conquerer‘s “Doomsday Book” backed up by armed knights to enforce tax collection.

 

Taxation in the UK is complex, too high and applied capriciously to those who have been thrifty, productive and honest who are regarded by Civil Service Mandarins as “our sheep”.

 

Then, of course, there are Local Authority Chief Executives, a group of people, who like the Local Authorities they run, are too numerous in number and in need of elimination, like Japanese knotweed. Already their councils are raising more money from parking and parking fines than they raise from council tax and as a result damage or put out of business those who might otherwise make a contribution.

 

The burden therefore continues to fall on those who are left which is why Dr Alf’s simple question will continue not to be answered in the way that he would like.

 

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A pie chart showing the projected constituents...

A pie chart showing the projected constituents of UK taxation receipts for the tax year 2008-2009, according to the 2008 Budget. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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