The Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Cabinet have been invited to support a debate on a General Tax Amnesty in the Parliament.
All the main Political Parties Members of Parliament have been contacted to ask them to sign up to an online Petition at Number 10 Downing Street’s website. http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/
John Mc Donnell MP (Lab) is the first Member of Parliament to sign up.
In a week that has seen headlines such as ‘Tax system chaos after Appeal Court Ruling’, ‘Taxman targets 100,000 top earners for millions’ and ‘Ruling leaves thousands facing huge tax bills’. Tax has never been so topical and is getting the attention of the public as the HMRC reveals more targeting to claw money into the Treasury black hole of 178 billion pounds deficit.
Phil Berwick, director of tax investigations at McGrigors, a leading law firm, said: “The complexity of the UK tax system makes it increasingly difficult for wealthy UK individuals and foreign nationals coming to the UK to comply with the rules. What is legitimate tax planning one year may be illegal the next. With the public finances in a desperate state, HMRC is likely to try to claw even more out of these taxpayers.”
Frank Nash, private client partner at Blick Rothenberg, said: “These large earners drive industry; their employers employ great swaths of people. With all this uncertainty over residency, they will now be forced to relocate overseas. With the new 50 per cent tax rate and national insurance going up, the majority of their efforts are going to the State. Effort and endeavour has effectively been nationalised.”
Peter Vaines, head of tax at Squire, Sanders & Dempsey and Mr. Tuczka’s solicitor, said that the tax system had fallen into “total chaos”. The problem has been exacerbated by the HMRC’s decision to postpone the implementation of a new statutory residency test until after the general election.
“An awful lot of people come to work here on a temporary basis thinking they’ve got three years [before they have to pay tax on the whole of their worldwide income],” Mr. Vaines said. “Now the taxman is saying that if you come to work here you are an ordinary resident and immediately liable to tax on everything, rather than being taxed only on UK earnings. This is going to be very damaging.”
Mike Warburton, tax director at Grant Thornton, said: “This new ruling is another nail in the coffin for the financial services industry. The Government seems intent on destroying a highly important industry.”
All the main Political Parties have made election statements about ‘fairness’
How many of the Members of Parliament sign up to have the call for a General Tax Amnesty debated time will tell if they believe fairness is an election slogan or something real.
