Autumn Statement 25 November 2015 - reaction/thoughts/rants/

[webberg]

The GAAR stuff is the inevitable mission creep that HMRC denied would happen.

[eazy]

From AccountingWeb :

Philip Fisher of BDO said the “tinkering around avoidance” was “unlikely to re-float the economy, since to date it is not clear that a single tax (not) payer has been caught in the GAAR net.”

Tina Riches of Smith & Williamson added that taxpayers were still very much in the dark on what is caught by the GAAR. “To date HMRC has not reported on any cases going to the GAAR panel formed after the 2013 legislation, so it seems rather premature to bring in GAAR penalties,” she said.

[derekdunn1873]

GAAR Penalties...

Can these penalties (60% of tax owed) be applied to contested EBT figures from the 2010-2011 tax year that are in an appealed state at the present time?

If so I may see if HMRC wish to settle using the funds I put in my CTD even though it is outside the settlement window...

Autumn Statement: GAAR gets more teeth
Autumn Statement: GAAR gets more teeth | AccountingWEB

Extracts:

George Osborne has given the General Anti-Abuse Rule (GAAR) more teeth with new penalties in the Autumn Statement 2015.

In his statement Osborne revealed the introduction of a new penalty of 60% of the tax due to be charged in all cases successfully tackled by the GAAR. The government will also make small changes to the GAAR’s procedure to improve its ability to tackle marketed avoidance schemes.

Also revealed in the Autumn Statement, new rules will be introduced to stop avoidance of stamp tax where ‘deep in the money’ options are used to transfer shares to a depositary receipt issuer or clearance service.

To help reduce opportunities for income to be converted to capital to gain a tax advantage, the government will also shortly publish a consultation on the company distributions rules.

It will also amend the transactions in securities rules and introduce a ‘Targeted Anti-Avoidance Rule’, according to Treasury papers.

The Autumn Statement documentation also stated: “The government is aware of tax planning around the intangible fixed assets regime used to obtain more generous corporation tax relief than is intended by the legislation. It will therefore amend the regime to stop arrangements that use partnerships to obtain relief that was not intended.

“The government will also amend legislation to counter two types of avoidance involving capital allowances and leasing, which involve businesses artificially increasing the value of their capital allowances or lowering the amount of tax which they pay,” the statement reads.

Lucy Brennan, partner at Saffery Champness also commented on the anti-avoidance measures: “Although efficiency measures such as a combined centre and digitalisation will assist with this one has to ask, with the GAAR in place, where further avoidance will come from, given we are still waiting for the first GAAR cases to be heard.”

On capital allowances and leasing, the measure is in two parts: Preventing a person using an artificially low disposal value for capital allowances purposes on the disposal of plant or machinery where tax advantage is one of the main purposes of the arrangements which include that disposal; and it brings into tax as income, if not already so taxed, any consideration receivable by a person, or a connected person, for agreeing to take over payments under a lease for which that person can claim tax deductions.

[webberg]

Can these penalties (60% of tax owed) be applied to contested EBT figures from the 2010-2011 tax year that are in an appealed state at the present time?

If so I may see if HMRC wish to settle using the funds I put in my CTD even though it is outside the settlement window...

NO.

[convict]

GAAR is not retrospective for schemes prior to its introduction in July 13

[LandRover]

GAAR is not retrospective for schemes prior to its introduction in July 13

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...ti-abuse-rules

The General Anti-Abuse Rule (GAAR) is part of the Government’s approach to managing the risk of tax avoidance. It has been introduced to strengthen HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC’s) anti-avoidance strategy and help HMRC tackle abusive avoidance. The GAAR legislation defines what are, for its purposes, tax arrangements that are abusive.

But just because something isn’t covered by the GAAR doesn’t mean it won’t be tackled in another way. HMRC will continue to tackle tax avoidance using existing anti avoidance methods as well as the GAAR, where appropriate.

The GAAR applies to the following taxes from 17 July 2013:

Income Tax
Corporation Tax (including amounts chargeable or treated as Corporation Tax)
Capital Gains Tax
Inheritance Tax
Petroleum Revenue Tax
Stamp Duty Land Tax
Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings

The GAAR applies to National Insurance contributions from March 2014.