No To Retro Tax – Campaign Against Section 58 Finance Act 2008

[SantaClaus]

Looks like BeenGauked has been busy again...

https://twitter.com/BeenGauked

I do like his pre-election website front page:

http://www.davidgauke.org.uk/

[BolshieBastard]

Tax inspectors failed to prosecute a wealthy tax cheat who did not submit returns or pay any tax for 24 years, documents seen by BBC Panorama show.

HM Revenue and Customs had concluded that Paul Bloomfield, a property investor involved in the redevelopment of Wembley Stadium, was a UK resident and liable for 20 years' tax.

Mr Bloomfield was on a list of HSBC clients with secret Swiss accounts.

HMRC said it would not comment on an individual taxpayer.
'Money box'

Mr Bloomfield enjoyed luxury homes, a boat, helicopter and private jet. His personal fortune was estimated at £60m in 2006 but when the taxman finally caught up with him five years later Mr Bloomfield was not prosecuted.

His is the most extreme case of tax evasion to emerge following the HSBC scandal and is likely to lead to further questions about HMRC's treatment of wealthy tax cheats.

The latest Panorama revelations came from the minutes of two meetings between Mr Bloomfield and HMRC investigators in 2011.

Mr Bloomfield told HMRC that, despite his lavish lifestyle, he did not own any property or have any income.

The notes of the meeting say: "Bloomfield advised that he has never paid a bill and never received a bill and when he needed money it was sent to him."

"When pressed, Bloomfield confirmed that his living expenses are paid from wherever there is money. In his words there is a box somewhere which contains money and he arranges for the bills to be paid."

Mr Bloomfield claimed an offshore company paid his rent and that another company paid for "the use of a Boeing 757, the use of a boat and a helicopter".

Some of the cash came from a Gibraltarian law firm, Marrache and Co, which closed in 2010 after the three brothers who ran the firm were arrested. Benjamin, Isaac and Solomon Marrache were jailed for fraud last year.

Mr Bloomfield told HMRC that at one point he had a credit card from Marrache which allowed him to draw down £15,000 a month for living expenses.

He claimed he had lived overseas, as well as in the UK, but the tax investigator concluded that Mr Bloomfield was resident in the UK and was liable for tax for the past 20 years.

The documents show the taxman also missed a straightforward opportunity to prove Mr Bloomfield's dishonesty.

At one of the meetings, he told HMRC that "he had never had an account in an offshore bank". But the leaked HSBC files show Mr Bloomfield had an account at HSBC's Private Bank in Geneva in 1993.

The taxman already had the HSBC files at the time of Mr Bloomfield's interview - so it should have been easy to show that he was lying.
Trappings of wealth

Richard Brooks, a former tax inspector who now works for Private Eye, said Mr Bloomfield should have been prosecuted.

"If you haven't paid any tax and you're given a chance by the Revenue to come clean, especially when the amount is on this scale, and you don't, then you can expect to be prosecuted. That is what you would expect."

Mr Bloomfield lived at several upmarket addresses in Kensington and Knightsbridge. He left his last known address - a luxury apartment in Hyde Park Gate - without paying the rent.

In April 2014, a London court ordered Mr Bloomfield to pay a former business associate, Mohammad Ghadami, £110m in damages.

Mr Ghadami told Panorama that Mr Bloomfield enjoyed all the trappings of wealth.

"It wasn't true he had no income, he had a few cars, a few drivers, security, a very expensive wife, an aeroplane," said Mr Ghadami.

"One thing he had, it was money. And he had so much organisation - accountants and lawyers - to work for him and to hide the money for him."

Mr Bloomfield is now thought to be living in Spain, but he failed to respond despite repeated requests for a comment.

An HMRC spokesman said: "We don't talk about identifiable taxpayers. We take a wide range of factors into account when deciding the right course of action."

BBC News - HMRC failed to prosecute tycoon over tax evasion

[OnYourBikeGB]

Tax inspectors failed to prosecute a wealthy tax cheat who did not submit returns or pay any tax for 24 years, documents seen by BBC Panorama show.



BBC News - HMRC failed to prosecute tycoon over tax evasion

Please let him be a big donator to the Tories or Labour. It'd make my day.

[mossman]

And we think we've got it bad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a0rg6Nn4T8

[lilikins1]

Yep. I m seriously thinking leaving for Spain and calling it a day here too

[lilikins1]

I m sorry but don t believe that story

Friend of mine used the scheme for one year in 05/06 and is being forced (by his employer) to settle a 35k liability.
Does anyone have any experience of negotiating a settlement with HMRC? Is it a case of contacting Mr Brannigan?

Give me his name we ll make a wack from selling this stuff to the newspapers if it s true

[lilikins1]

That is outrageous and in this sad world of progressive leftist liberalism is probably a breach of the individuals human rights. I would see legal advice if that happened to me.

Absolutely! So they haven t proven you owe any money and they re phoning around talking/damaging reputations/making people lose jobs....TABLOID material!!!!!!

[BolshieBastard]

As HMRC boss, Dave Hartnett persecuted small taxpayers while striking deals with tax-avoiders | Daily Mail Online

The tax man with his snout in the trough: As HMRC boss, Dave Hartnett persecuted small taxpayers while striking sweetheart deals with tax-avoiding giants. He did almost nothing about the HSBC scandal, then went to work for them

Published: 01:16, 14 February 2015 | Updated: 12:38, 14 February 2015

As the credit crunch bit hard into the British economy, the esteemed head of Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs decided to swap the grey chill of London — flying business class, naturally — for a five-star hotel in the Indian sunshine.

It was December 2010 — the height of the financial crisis that saw politicians call on the British people to remember Winston Churchill's cry that 'we're all in it together'. Yet that sentiment seemed far from the mind of civil service mandarin David Hartnett.

Travelling at taxpayers' expense to attend the Mumbai International Taxation Conference, Hartnett — happily married with three children — was accompanied by another senior tax official from his department called Melissa Tatton: the pair spent four days enjoying this vibrant seaside Indian city, staying in £200-a-night rooms on the executive floor of the ITC Maratha Hotel.

Happily for him, work did not get in the way too much on this 'jolly' for Britain's top tax official: he and Ms Tatton each spoke for 30 minutes at the obscure conference sponsored by a tax advisory firm from the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, and attended a one-hour discussion session afterwards.

Then permanent secretary for tax in HMRC David Hartnett (right) in Mumbai with another senior official from his department Melissa Tatton (left) in 2010

Of the 500 delegates, most were from private Indian accounting firms, while the only other government tax officials present were a mid-ranking civil servant from New Zealand and India's own chief of income tax.

Apart from their brief appearance at the conference, Hartnett and Ms Tatton spent much of their time lounging around their five-star hotel, and indulging the taxman's favourite hobby of gourmet dining in some of its seven restaurants.

The jaunt cost an estimated £6,000. It was, of course, paid for by the British taxpayer, which was all the more galling considering the public were being squeezed by the new era of austerity. Hartnett, after all, was the very man who was supposed to be trying to raise as much money as possible to reduce the soaring deficit.

Yet such largesse with other people's money is something of a trademark for 63-year-old Mr Hartnett, a colourful individual with a tousled grey mop who insists he is called 'Dave'.

For 'Dave', who earned a degree in Latin from Birmingham University before joining the Revenue in 1975 as a graduate trainee, is as far removed from the dust-dry image of the average civil servant as it is possible to imagine.

While colleagues ate at their desk or in the canteen, Hartnett's favourite haunt was The Cinnamon Club, an opulent Indian restaurant near Westminster, where the special is crusted fillet steak of Wagyu beef with stir-fried baby morel mushrooms, priced at £95.

All very agreeable, no doubt — except that now his past is coming back to haunt him with a vengeance.

It emerged this week that, as the most powerful figure in the government's tax office, Hartnett failed to pursue the bank HSBC or its clients in what is now being described as the biggest private banking scandal in history.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists this week laid bare thousands of secret HSBC files, showing how the bank's Swiss operation helped the rich and powerful hide billions in assets, and circumvent tax authorities in the process.
It emerged this week that, as the most powerful figure in the government's tax office, Hartnett failed to pursue the bank HSBC or its clients in what is now being described as the biggest private banking scandal in history
+3

It emerged this week that, as the most powerful figure in the government's tax office, Hartnett failed to pursue the bank HSBC or its clients in what is now being described as the biggest private banking scandal in history

The secret cache of documents was stolen by an HSBC official called Herve Falciani, who later worked at the Swiss arm of the bank, and handed tax authorities discs showing that the bank was helping wealthy clients avoid tax. Mr Falciani revealed on Thursday that he had emailed Mr Hartnett's special tax evasion unit as long ago as 2008 to report the matter, then called the HMRC telephone hotline later in 2008, but no action was taken.

The tax office denied these claims yesterday, even though Mr Falciani has a copy of the email that he sent.

So even after the evidence was apparently offered to tax officials in 2008, precious little action was taken to prosecute the British clients of the Swiss private bank. Nor was HSBC pursued for criminal action over tax avoidance schemes.

Less than a year after retiring as head taxman in 2012, Hartnett was appointed to a lucrative advisory post at none other than HSBC, specialising in financial risks and crime.

This contentious area is not the only one in which David Hartnett — who lives in an £800,000 house outside St Albans, Hertfordshire — would appear to have serious questions to answer.

This week, a Revenue whistleblower told me Hartnett's tenure as the country's top taxman is ripe for an investigation over a series of scandals that have seen giant firms such as Vodafone and GlaxoSmithKline let off paying billions in tax during a series of 'sweetheart deals' brokered personally by Hartnett.

The most notorious case came when it emerged in 2010 that Vodafone owed the Exchequer £6 billion in unpaid taxes. Hartnett, after a series of private meetings and with no legal representation, agreed to accept a massively reduced £1.25 billion payment — and allowed the money to be paid back in instalments over several years.

Even worse, it transpired that the deal had been struck after an astonishing 48 meetings between Hartnett and David Cruickshank, a partner at Deloitte, the accountancy firm dealing with Vodafone's tax arrears. Most of these meetings were held in exclusive London restaurants. 'Dave' was a familiar figure in City eateries, holding a staggering 107 meetings over breakfast, lunch or dinner in a three-year spell, earning him the dubious accolade of the most wined and dined mandarin in Whitehall.

[BolshieBastard]

CONTINUED



The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists this week laid bare thousands of secret HSBC files, showing how the bank's Swiss operation helped the rich and powerful hide billions in assets

Indeed, some 27 times he dined at the tables — and at the expense of — the 'big four' accounting firms, the very ones which supposedly do battle with HMRC over the tax affairs of the corporate behemoths they represent.

What is particularly interesting is that in 2013 it emerged that Hartnett, after leaving the Revenue, had been appointed to a lucrative new position with Deloitte — the auditors for Vodafone — who had negotiated massively discounted tax settlements with none other than David Hartnett.

He also accepted hospitality from Vodafone's financial advisers — yes, Deloitte — only weeks before he personally agreed the deal that allowed the firm to avoid billions in tax liabilities.

To add to the intrigue, Vodafone's agreement came after negotiations between Hartnett and John Connors, the phone company's head of tax. Until 2007, Mr Connors was a senior official at HMRC . . . where he worked closely with Hartnett.

The public would know nothing about these scandalous sweetheart deals were it not for the courage of Osita Mba, a barrister in Hartnett's department, who paid a terrible price for alerting MPs to the secret deals being struck by his boss.

Mr Mba, with a master's degree from Oxford University, worked in the personal tax litigation team that dealt with Goldman Sachs, the U.S. investment bank, which was being pursued by HMRC for tax owed over more than five years. Furious about his department's pursuit of minor offenders, with demands for immediate payment of small sums owed on pain of penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment, Mr Mba was aghast to discover multi-billion-pound business giants were allowed to avoid fortunes in unpaid tax.

Using the Public Interest Disclosure Act, he wrote to the National Audit Office (NAO) and two parliamentary committees in confidence in 2011, saying that Hartnett had spared Goldman Sachs from paying at least £10 million in interest on tax arrears.

He revealed that the bank's settlement had been agreed with a handshake by Hartnett, the permanent secretary for tax at HMRC. Mr Mba believed the deal could be illegal, and vowed to reveal all to MPs under legislation designed to protect whistleblowers.

Retribution was swift and brutal. Astonishingly, the tax office used anti-terror legislation under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (known as RIPA) against Mr Mba. These laws give the authorities sweeping powers that allow them to access phone and email records. Mr Mba was suspended. His locker and desk were searched. His internet searches, emails and telephone calls were all checked. His wife's phone was also monitored.

In 2011, one 'internal criminal investigator' emailed colleagues saying the Revenue had begun 'a review of the suspect's [Mba's] H drive [the hard drive used within HMRC] and email traffic and internet usage', but inquiries had revealed nothing.

He then proposed a 'further interrogation of computer material' and an 'itemised billing check', and wrote that 'consultations with the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] can proceed'.

MPs were shocked to learn that officials at HMRC sanctioned the use of the RIPA anti-terrorism powers. And there is no doubt Mr Mba paid a terrible price for his actions, which were so clearly in the public interest.

He was hounded out of his job, and his marriage collapsed under the strain.

Margaret Hodge, chair of the powerful Public Accounts Committee, had strong words for the current chief executive of HMRC, Lin Homer, when she questioned her over the matter.

'It just shocked me to my bones, really, to see these very extreme powers being used to try to hound this poor man. There is no other word for it: you hounded him, to the extent that you have broken him.'

Mrs Hodge went so far as to say: 'The Department [HMRC] has broken him and it is awful. I feel personally responsible, because I think we exposed him to a lot of this in using the evidence that he provided to us.'

Now trying to rebuild his life, having finally reached an out-of-court settlement with HMRC to leave the civil service, Mr Mba was not surprised this week to see David Hartnett at the centre of the scandal over HSBC's Swiss bank.

'Hopefully, a thorough investigation of what went on in HMRC under Mr Hartnett's watch will finally take place,' he told me.

Hartnett, meanwhile, has prospered. He stepped down as permanent secretary for tax in 2012, leaving with a year's salary of £165,000 (plus £48,000 for unclaimed holidays), and a pension pot worth £1.7 million, providing an annual income of £80,000.

As well as his jobs with HSBC and Deloitte, he has also worked for the Washington-based International Monetary Fund as a consultant, providing tax advice to the Thai, Russian, Kenyan and Greek governments.

Richard Murphy, an economist and accountant who runs Tax Research UK and studies tax avoidance by multi-nationals, says: 'Dave Hartnett was at one time the taxman's taxman — really tough on tax avoiders. I got to know him quite well, and dined with him at The Cinnamon Club. He could be charismatic and at the same time arrogant. He was very much the main man and the boss.

'But he became far too cosy with the big accounting firms from 2008 onwards. He could see they were all making more money than him.

'He became too friendly with the business community. It was inappropriate. He spent far too much time in The Cinnamon Club — that seemed to change his attitude to business. It was probably quite convenient for him when he had to retire from HMRC and could go into business for himself.'

Convenient, at the time, perhaps. But with the gathering storm surrounding HSBC, the sybaritic Mr Hartnett would seem to have many disturbing questions to answer over the bank scandal — not least why he did so little to act on allegations against HSBC, and was then allowed to work for it.

[SantaClaus]

Never thought I'd see an anti-HMRC article in the Daily Wail.