City law firms to help out Hartnett
Following reports that HMRC’s in house solicitors office cannot cope with its workload, it now seems that the department is having to call on city law firms to deal with the backlog of cases which have built up as a result of its new Settlement and Litigation policy.
In stark contrast to the disastrously random Offshore Disclosure Arrangement of last year HMRC’s acting CEO, Dave Harnett is now pursuing a zero tolerance strategy against tax evaders.
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Comment
“Grant Thornton’s Mark Warburton, who told the Sunday Times, who originally reported the story, “There will be city lawyers who will think Christmas has come early. Inspectors have started taking cases on relatively small amounts, regardless of cost and there is the potential for a great deal of money going to m’learned friends.”
I note from Grant Thornton’s website that it has offices in, inter alia, Jersey, Cayman Islands and Liechtenstein (this last admittedly a correspondent firm). I will not bore you with the names of all the many other tax havens in which GT has a presence.
I wonder if Mike Warburton will assure us that no GT member or correspondent firm has ever been involved in advising, or administering or procuring investment in a tax haven by, someone who has been involved in tax evasion (UK or elsewhere)? The chances of that are zero.
So GT, along with all other firms that operate in, or refer clients to, the tax havens, are in fact part of the REASON for this offshore tax evasion process and the “great deal of money” being paid to lawyers.
Take a bow Mike and heartfelt thanks from a taxpayer who is paying for this. I for one would prefer if you kept your rentataxmouth shut in future.
Maybe it’s sour grapes that he chose to become an accountant rather than a lawyer.
Maybe
we need accountants on HMRC Board to do a Business Plan and give us meaningful figures for the overall benefit to the GB UK from zero tolerance
regards and hope this helps
bill@wamstaxltd.com