Take That!

vivatifosi

Well said fella. I run a company and just when I think I've got to grips with tax law it changes again. There is very little continuity. This could be changes in Vat, changes to Corp Tax, changes to recording methods... and so on.

Of course, anyone who ends up the wrong side must pay the money back pronto. Equally the government should be simplifying the codes and closing loopholes.

wymondham

Annie1960 wrote: »

Barlow donates to the Conservative party, and Carr does not.

This makes it all murky and awkward (for both parties) then doesn't it!

GeorgeHowell

Annie1960 wrote: »

Barlow donates to the Conservative party, and Carr does not.

Well that substantiates what we already know -- Gary Barlow has a lot more sense than Carr, and does not expose himself to being called a hypocrite.

tincans

DCodd wrote: »

Our tax laws are a joke and an international joke at that. They are the most complex and convoluted tax laws in the world. If we want UK individuals to be taxed in the UK then we need to make them more straight forward and understandable.

This is simply nonsense.

PWC rank all countries by tax rate and compliance time and the UK comes out comparatively well.

Something like 14th best out of 189 countries, Ireland is better as are most of the western friendly gulf states.

http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/paying-taxes/assets/pwc-paying-taxes-2014.pdf

DCodd

tincans wrote: »

This is simply nonsense.

PWC rank all countries by tax rate and compliance time and the UK comes out comparatively well.

Something like 14th best out of 189 countries, Ireland is better as are most of the western friendly gulf states.

http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/paying-taxes/assets/pwc-paying-taxes-2014.pdf

You misunderstand, The UK has the largest tax code in the world.
http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/blogs/gina-dyer/team-blog/uk-tax-code-longest-world

It is actually over 17,000 pages now.

princeofpounds

You misunderstand, The UK has the largest tax code in the world

Whilst I agree that it is stupidly long, and should be about 3 times smaller at least, the length of the book is probably not the best measure of tax code complexity for a variety of reasons.

theEnd

I hear lots of others mentioned. Anyone know who?
I suspect a lot of my contractor friends are involved in this kind of thing.

DCodd

princeofpounds wrote: »

Whilst I agree that it is stupidly long, and should be about 3 times smaller at least, the length of the book is probably not the best measure of tax code complexity for a variety of reasons.

Maybe not but the application of those rules do. The tax code itself would be around 5,000 pages if it didn't include duplication and foot notes which in themselves complicate matters.

Let's take the K2 scheme that Barlow, carr etc fell foul of. If you read the tax code, the K2 scheme is legal. Where it fails is in HMRC's own "artificial" measure. It took a court to work out if HMRC's "ideals" were valid in law (in this case only, it has to be said). The scheme itself is legal, the operations of the scheme and the subsequent outcome for the "investor" that has been deemed to be "artificial".

Artificial is a subjective viewpoint, it can not be precisely defined in law. which is why each scheme has to evaluated on it's own merits.

princeofpounds

Let's take the K2 scheme that Barlow, carr etc fell foul of. If you read the tax code, the K2 scheme is legal. Where it fails is in HMRC's own "artificial" measure.

I've not looked into it in any detail, so you may well be right.

I do agree that complexity does create problems over who should arbitrate and on what principles!

I keep meaning to look into tax efficiency more now that I am getting caught up in capital gains etc. more and more, neve really sure where to start. Most of the advisors I end up coming across always feel a bit shady - probably the cold calls don't help.

DCodd

Annie1960 wrote: »

I agree. When I did my accountancy exams there was always a correct answer as to how much tax should be paid.

.

So how do you reconcile that viewpoint with WIP?