The Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor has been a stern critic of the Isle of Man, calling us a haven for tax dodgers. He also demanded that the Isle of Man be closed as a ‘tax haven’ and for banks receiving investment from the UK Government to shut offshore operations. Despite that he accepted an invitation [...]
For many years UK taxpayers benefitted greatly by transferring (settling) their assets in offshore trusts, but increasing ant-avoidance legislation has led people to believe that there is no point in using an offshore trust any more. Whilst it is true that the tax advantages are no longer as good and they once were the fact [...]
There are stunned expressions on the faces of Isle of Man politicians, civil servants and business leaders who have just read an official press statement from Stephen Timms, Financial Secretary to the UK Treasury, seen here behind his political master Gordon Brown. After months, indeed years of undisguised hostility, most blatantly with Chancellor Alistair Darling’s [...]
A shock announcement in the small print of this year’s budget has left thousands of UK farmers and second home owners reeling at the loss of tax breaks without which they may have to sell up. Not a good thing in a falling market. But it could benefit owners of foreign holiday property. Buried deep [...]
This Blog is dedicated to offering help and advice to people who run or want to run a business of any kind. In addition to the information contained in the posts we also offer a number of free business guides, usually around 12 pages long, on a wide range of subjects. You can access these via [...]
As promised by Gordon Brown at the end of the G20 summit today, the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) has provided a detailed report on progress by financial centres around the world towards implementation of an internationally agreed standard on exchange of information for tax purposes. The list is split into four sections [...]
Anyone setting up a business in Germany has a few problems to overcome. High taxation, high social charges, and high cost of company formation to name just three. That’s why more and more Germans are setting up companies in the United Kingdom. Believe it or not, the UK remains very business friendly. Anyone can set [...]
Whilst Gordon Brown, Alastair Darling and Barack Obama attack the Isle of Man as a “Tax Havens” the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development) praise the Isle of Man. If proof were ever needed that the bully boys of the UK and USA are attacking small offshore countries just to divert attention from their [...]
I live in the Isle of Man. For those of you who don’t know this is a small island in the middle of the Irish Sea about midway between England, Scotland and Ireland (and a little further from Wales). Although one of the British Isles we are an independent country – with the oldest [...]
I recently received a question from the owner of a UK company questioning the imposition of Spanish withholding tax on payments his company received from a Spanish subsidiary. He thought that the EU Parent-Subsidiary Directive exempted the tax. In fact it would do for dividends but not for royalty payments, which these payments were for [...]
Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has issued a warning that fraudsters are sending out fake e-mails promising rebates. An estimated five million people filed their tax returns online last month and now many of them are receiving emails which purport to come from HMRC saying there has been an error in calculating their [...]
The British Treasury has set up an independent review to examine the operations of offshore financial centres and their effect on the UK economy. The review will look at the current and future risks posed by the current economic crisis to the financial business of British Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories including Jersey, Guernsey, the [...]
There has been much publicity and comment about “non doms” – these being persons who whilst resident in the UK are not domiciled there (see here for more information on what this means). The popular belief is that these people are unfairly avoiding tax on income or capital gains made outside the UK by claiming [...]
HMRC have published new regulations relating to the payment of Class 2 and voluntary Class 3 national insurance contributions (NICs) for past years. Class 3 contributions for the 2006-07 tax year which are paid after 5 April 2009 and voluntary Class 2 contributions for the 2006-07 tax year which are paid after 5 April 2008 [...]
HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs) have announced that they are gearing up to mount an attack on Managed Service Companies (MSCs) based in the UK and offshore. Background For many years now HMRC has battled to try and stop what it perceives to be the unacceptable use of limited companies as a way for [...]
Recent UK legislation has resulted in the real possibility that contractors using offshore umbrella companies could face massive back tax bills. For a number of years now many contractors have worked via umbrellas companies based offshore in jurisdictions such as the Isle of Man. These companies have offered contractors up to 85 per cent of [...]
Ken Henry, Australia’s Treasury Secretary today unveiled the first in a series of long awaited consultation papers which are aimed at simplifying the country’s overcomplicated tax system in a bid to attract greater investment into the country. Currently Australians are subject to 125 different taxes, but the vast majority of government revenue (about 90%) is [...]
In his Pre-Budget Statement on Monday Alistair Darling quietly dumped legislation intended to outlaw income splitting arrangements among individuals that would have effectively forced small, family-run businesses to pay more tax. For some years now the Labour government has tried to take action against income splitting arrangements which it considers “unacceptable tax avoidance”. Leaving aside [...]
Amid much hype and to no-one’s surprise, yesterday Alistair Darling cut the standard rate of VAT to 15% with effect from the 1 December 2008. The cut is temporary and so on 1st January 2010 the standard rate will return to 17.5%. The 15% rate will apply to the supply of goods and services currently [...]
I enjoy watching Question Time on the BBC each Thursday. It can be amusing and entertaining usually because of the crass stupidity of some of the panellists. I don’t object to politicians and celebrities displaying their ignorance and political bias as at least it helps us make an informed opinion about them, but sometimes they [...]
