In an article written for MSN Money, Naomi Caine on June 20th stated that HM Revenue & Customs wants to claw back hundreds of millions of pounds from people with offshore accounts. The department have long suspected that people are hiding money offshore for this reason they set up the Offshore Fraud Project Group (OFPG) to try to nail the tax cheats. in 2002. However they faced a lot of difficulty in extracting information from the banks due to their confidentiality agreement.
There was initial resistance from the big banks, but last year the taxman forced Barclays to disclose details of its offshore customers. The other big banks were also hit by disclosure orders after they failed to cough up the information voluntarily. Smaller banks and building societies have now fallen into line. There are also unconfirmed reports that tax officials have demanded that credit card companies disclose details of customers with offshore accounts. (more…)
According to an article in the June 21, 2007 edition of Daily Mail, there has been a widening gap between the rich and the poor in Britain and it’s said this may cause riots.
Sir Ronald Cohen has said that something must be done before the situation turns violent. The close friend of Gordon Brown also raised the spectre as it was shown that some of Britain’s richest were attacked by a powerful Commons committee by getting out of paying high taxes via a loophole.
Last week it was found that some entrepreneurs are paying a lower rate than their cleaners. Ordinary citizens are outraged that these wealthy entrepreneurs were receiving huge tax breaks. (more…)
According to the May 11, 2007 edition of FT.com The Financial Times, Isa tax savings are working contrary to some other suggestions. Bestinvests’s calculations showed that higher rate taxpayers could have saved up to 6,600 pounds in income tax over the past eight years through Isas invested. The average taxpayer could have saved up to 3,500 pounds.
Since 2004, does away with the tax credit on share-based plans does mean that Isas haven’t offered any tax benefit for the average taxpayer.
However these investors have had the opportunity to make significant tax savings prior to this as well as through cash and Isas corporate bonds. Cash and corporate bond Isas have the biggest benefit as they are both tax-free. Isas invested in corporate bonds or bond funds give the same benefit. (more…)
