Blog
HMRC Loan Charge – Can the Brakes be Applied to this Car Crash Legislation?
Background HMRC has been involved in a long-running battle against arrangements that it believed were little more than devices to circumvent the operation of PAYE and NIC by employers. Typically, this involved the directors of owner-managed businesses and contractors...
GDPR – Be Prepared!
This is a non-tax specific article, but it is regarding an issue that potentially affects us all in practice. Yet more red tape to tie us in practice or an important safeguard – we will let you decide! GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation and is a term...
Criminal Finances Act
As the Criminal Finance Act beds in, we thought it was worth just pausing to take a breath and see how it affects us and what we are seeing in practice. The general view is very much along the lines of an awareness that there is uncertainty as to how the new...
The BBC – Moral Guardian of Tax? Or do as I say not as I do?
The debate about tax avoidance continues unabated, with recent headline grabbers including the "Paradise Papers" which revealed that - surprise surprise - individuals and entities held assets and investments through offshore structures and a piece this week on how the...
What Can We Learn From The “Paradise Papers”?
So, the "Paradise Papers" - following on from the Mossack Fonseca "Panama Papers" - don't really contain any surprises other than the Duchy of Lancaster obliquely popping up. Lord Ashcroft has been in the spotlight for some time (and we must admit we struggle with his...
HMRC Win Rangers EBT Case at Supreme Court
The Supreme Court have today (5 July 2017) found in favour of HMRC with regard to the long-running Employee Benefit Trust ("EBT") case. This is the final nail in the coffin that puts beyond doubt that from a PAYE perspective, the use of EBT's by company's was...
Government Attack on “Enablers” of Tax Avoidance – A Commentary for Professional Practices
Now that the dust has settled on the draft legislation at Schedule 20 of the Finance Bill 2017, entitled “Penalties for Enablers of Defeated Tax Avoidance” we thought it would be interesting to take a look at the detail of the draft legislation and how it is likely to...
Taxpayers Behaving Badly? Making the Case for Anonymity Before a Tax Tribunal
In a fascinating case, a Tax Tribunal Judge has considered claims by the well-known actor Martin Clunes that his tax appeal in respect of his claims for the tax deductibility of cosmetic surgery should be heard in private to spare Mr Clunes’ blushes. The case...
The Governments Continuing War on Tax Avoidance – an Update
The dust has now settled on the 2017 edition of January 31st – the day when many taxpayers, plus their beleaguered accountants, breathe a collective sigh of relief as the law-abiding will have filed their online returns by today’s deadline. This year though, it’s a...
The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement – A Tax Dispute Specialists’ Perspective
Well, we’ve had Philip Hammond’s first Autumn Statement, and now the dust has settled what do we at Outhwaite Associates make of it all? Well, we’ll leave aside the well-publicised commentary around growth, infrastructure and the mainstream headlines, and just focus...
Outhwaite Associates Broadcasts to the World!
We were really excited recently to film a webinar for our friends at MBL Seminars on HMRC's Worldwide Disclosure Facility. A sneak preview is at the link below, as is the registration link for the entire webinar, which we can highly recommend!...
HMRC Announces Latest “Research & Development Tax Credit” Annual Statistics
HMRC has just released its annual report looking at the statistics behind Research & Development ("R&D") tax credit claims by businesses, and the numbers make fascinating reading. For the uninitiated, R&D tax credits are a tax relief introduced some years...
Brexit from EU – Some Thoughts Regarding VAT
Well, as things stand in September 2016 we do not yet know when our exit from the EU will actually happen and neither does the Government. It may be late 2019, which seems to be the current opinion but until negotiations are concluded we do not know what the actual...
Better Late than Never! HMRC Announce New Disclosure Facility
Having prematurely closed all its pre-existing facilities to disclose tax irregularities on 31 December 2015, we have been waiting for news of the facility to replace them that was first announced by the then Chancellor last year. Finally, we have news to report. We...
Tax Planning and the Duke of Westminster
We were sad to hear about the death of the Duke of Westminster today. It brings to mind his predecessor and the famous tax case regarding the legality of legitimate tax planning. Baron Tomlin, in the UK House of Lords case of the Inland Revenue Commissioners v Duke...
How to Survive a Tax Investigation – Helpful Clients (part 1)
Particularly for practitioners, we thought it would be helpful to run a series of articles aimed at giving you practical advice to pass on to clients in the form of questions and answers to guide as to what to do if clients receive the dreaded letter from HMRC...
HM Revenue & Customs Disclosure Facilities – Where are we now?
We live in interesting times as far as HM Revenue & Customs (“HMRC”) disclosure facilities are concerned! Historically, since the late 2000’s, we have had a succession of disclosure facilities made available by HMRC, to offer a “light touch” route with which to...
Steve Outhwaite’s Marathon Effort
Steve is very proud to have raised £2,500 for a national children’s charity by taking part in – and completing – this year’s London Marathon. Steve ran the 26-mile race for a charity close to his heart - Caudwell Children. The charity provides family support services,...
Introducing Ilyas Satia
We have been looking to strengthen our links with the North West of England for some time now (particularly as Steve is an inveterate Preston North End supporter!) and are delighted to announce that in conjunction with opening an office in Blackburn, we now have a...
The “Google Tax” – Necessary or Political Posturing?
Google tax is the popular term used to refer to “Diverted Profits Tax” (“DPT”), which is a legislative fix heralded in the Chancellors 2014 Autumn Statement and then ratified in the April 2015 budget. Recently, in a similar vein, the Australian...
Fame at last!
Our very own Stephen Outhwaite has been immortalised on the internet after his marathon effort! http://www.yorkshirebusinessdaily.co.uk/2016/05/05/harrogate-tax-advisors-marathon-effort-for-childrens-charity/