BN66 - Time to fight back: Continued

[smalldog]

PwC and KPMG were heavy promoters of property schemes. It is rumoured that they have been warned off getting involved in any challenge, for risk of reprisal (losing public sector contracts etc.).

I don't know where that leaves their former clients but presumably up the creek without a paddle.

hold on a cotton picking minute! I work for the government too and they cant do that, its called blackmail!!!! you have to be soooo careful with contracts to ensure you are being fair, excluding on the basis you dont agree with a government action would be breching pretty much all the procurement and contractual regs set down by the government themselves to prevent corruption....sorry are we now living in zimbabwe or something?

[BrilloPad]

Still no date for JR

Montp recently had someone suggest that they contact the listing office!

As if they hadn't thought of that!

No wonder they don't bother communicating with us!

Its enough to turn anyone

[BrilloPad]

hold on a cotton picking minute! I work for the government too and they cant do that, its called blackmail!!!! you have to be soooo careful with contracts to ensure you are being fair, excluding on the basis you dont agree with a government action would be breching pretty much all the procurement and contractual regs set down by the government themselves to prevent corruption....sorry are we now living in zimbabwe or something?

Please dont bring facts into a perfectly reasonable argument.

Do you have any proof? Someone did PM me who knows what is going on - but they have no proof! Even if they did they are too scared to talk.....

[DonkeyRhubarb]

Nice synopsis

Stumbled across this while trying to find anything on the mythical property developers.

http://www.schmidtreport.co.uk/Subscribers/sub5b.html

Double-tax treaty ‘abuse’
A lot of people are very angry about this one. A very clever scheme existed, which we won’t go into the technicalities of as it seems to have been wiped off the face of the earth by the 2008 Budget, where you set up a partnership in the Isle of Man consisting of a reasonably complicated structure of trusts and companies. This trust, which had a UK-based settlor and beneficiary, then entered into profitable trading (almost always in property development) and the scheme worked so that the profits accrued to the Isle of Man partnership could be remitted straight to the beneficiary in the UK with no tax, either in the UK or the Isle of Man.

Rumour has it that there were several hundreds of £millions leaking out of the UK’s tax net as a result of these schemes, but the way they stopped them is distinctly below the belt.

The Budget notes promise legislation in the Finance Act 2008 to “clarify, retrospectively, legislation introduced in 1987, which itself was retrospective, so that it has effect as intended”.

You can always be sure that when those introducing legislation in this country use the word ‘clarify’ they really mean ‘change’, and the word is always used where the subject is being kicked in the teeth by the civil servants.

Presumably, because this new measure is aimed at those wicked people who ‘abuse’ the rules, the legislators are not being as coy as they usually are about admitting that they are bringing forward retrospective legislation.

Retrospective legislation, that is where law is introduced now which is treated as having been effective from before it was introduced, is effectively the death of legislation. On our shelves as we write this are four fat tomes printed on very thin paper containing most of the UK’s tax legislation. We may as well take those books off the shelf and throw them in the bin, if retrospective legislation is going to be allowed, because the government can, it seems, turn round to us and say that the law wasn’t how it was actually written in the books at the time we entered into transactions relying on it. We wonder what the point is in having it written in the books in the first place.

[poppy01]

Please dont bring facts into a perfectly reasonable argument.

Do you have any proof? Someone did PM me who knows what is going on - but they have no proof! Even if they did they are too scared to talk.....

if such proof did exist it would look pretty bad for hmrc - sincerely hope something turns up, it would suddenly make this a massive story

[Emigre]

Please dont bring facts into a perfectly reasonable argument.

Do you have any proof? Someone did PM me who knows what is going on - but they have no proof! Even if they did they are too scared to talk.....

Silence is clearly a reasonable solution to the accountants although how that is supposed to be acting in the best interests of their clients is a mystery.

Conceptually, the retrospective elements of FA 2008 are in direct conflict with accounting principles endorsed day in day out by the accounting profession. Sale of soul to the methinks.

Actual, attributable evidence would be much harder to acquire. After all, we are talking conspiracy and corruption here, great words to be sitting at the doors of firms charged with commenting on the truth and fairness of businesses!

DR - great find on DT abuses

[BrilloPad]

if such proof did exist it would look pretty bad for hmrc - sincerely hope something turns up, it would suddenly make this a massive story

I have some GREAT media contacts if it does turn up. Should there be anyone lurking who can prove it - I do hope you can do the right thing....

[smalldog]

Well on a very very serious note I would be happy to pay for this kind of info!

Working in government as I do and knowing how stringent it is we all follow the red tape and are completely accountable to the general public, anyone, no matter how big, who happens to have threatened third party contracts on the basis of sitting down and shutting up over government legislation will be up to their necks in a whole world of sh*t that would break open this whole sorry mess without the need for a JR or even Montp's involvement.

If anyone has any facts please PM me.....

[DonkeyRhubarb]

I have some GREAT media contacts if it does turn up. Should there be anyone lurking who can prove it - I do hope you can do the right thing....

Do you think the media will pick up on the JR? Do we want to encourage this, point them in the right direction etc?

[Ratican]

Media

Advise to contact MP - IOM office before going down any media route. I asked something similar a couple of months ago... emailed TQ - he forwarded to IOM - heard nothing back so I didn't do anything.