Tax Loop Holes – put the blame where the blame is due

Author Elaine Clark No Responses »
Jun 212012

How many more stories of known tax loop holes are going to appear before the ‘power of the press’ turns away from blaming the tax payer for acting legally and not breaking the law to the Government for allowing such known tax loopholes to go unchallenged for years?

Having aired my views on this topic on my blog back in April, some two months on there is no change.

Read more at – My blog click for more

George Osborne has given his objectives to the new head of HMRC, Lin Homer and closing Tax Loop Holes was not explicitly stated as being one of them.

Why not?

If Cameron is so outraged by these tax loopholes why isn’t he instructing his Ministers to do something about them. Surely he is the one person in the country that can start to bring changes to the law!

Tax Boffins

If there are any tax loop holes to be had in existing tax legislation then there will be a ‘gaggle of tax boffins’ working very hard, for big fees, to find those loop holes.

Better to be on the inside of the tent …..

It was Lyndon B. Johnson who said (slightly adapted to remove potentially offensive language)

“It’s probably better to have him inside the tent peeing out, than outside the tent peeing in.”

I think Cameron and HMRC should adopt the same approach – get the best Tax Boffins inside HMRC advising how to close the loopholes and make more water tight legalisation and if that isn’t possible then start from scratch and revolutionise the tax system.

Let’s face it – with the millions involved this should be self funding!

Tax is one of the two certainties in life and it is certain that whatever system is in place people will not like paying it and will try to reduce their tax bill.

But let’s face it – a lot can be done to get rid of some of these known loop holes if only people would get off their ‘chairs’ and do so instead of whinging about it and being morally outrage.

Being outraged changes nothing except maybe your blood pressure!


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Posted by admin at 10:16 am Tagged with: , ,

Will changing to the ‘tax woman’ bring real tax simplification for small businesses?

Author Elaine Clark No Responses »
May 302012


Just this week Lord Young said that “Today it is easier than it ever has been to start a business”.

But don’t be fooled – working for yourself in whatever capacity, whether as a sole trader, freelancer, contractor, sub contractor or shareholder in your own limited company, may be very easy to get started but it is very tough to make it work in the long term.

Not only do you have to make sales and control your costs, you will also have a plethora of tax obligations to understand and take on.

Tax Landscape

Although the Government has repeatedly promised reforms to simplify the tax systems, the small business tax landscape is very complicated.

In fact, if anything it is becoming even more complicated.

Broken Promises

Small businesses, promised a reduction in ‘red tape’ by the coalition, are seeing continued changes in their systems of taxation, such as the proposed cash accounting system and IR35 business entity tests.

Changes that small business owners need to read, digest and understand.

Add into this mix the fact that encouraging businesses to trade overseas to aid the economic recovery means running into complex overseas tax issues such as having to register, account for and pay VAT in EU countries.

The result is a huge accounting and tax administrative burden on every small business.

Tax is taxing, demanding, challenging and constantly changing

There is no simple crash course to accounting and tax for small businesses. Things change too often leaving the business owner in danger of being out of date and missing something.

Will it change?

In January this year we saw the arrival of Lin Homer as “HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC) Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary”.

Maybe it is a bit too early to see if she is having a positive impact on the leadership and direction of HMRC?

Do I really believe that a woman can sort out the issues with the current tax system?

Well it will take someone with a lot of ‘bottle’ to make the changes that are really needed.

No more tinkering around the edges please Lin – we need revolution not evolution to get the small business tax landscape to a place that is fit for purpose.

Go girl!


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Posted by admin at 4:19 pm Tagged with: , , , , ,

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