This week's opinion

The reporting of the Paradise Papers has been an extraordinary farrago of speculation half-truth and innuendo as well it must be acknowledged as highlighting some dubious avoidance activity. Somehow the word ‘offshore’ taints everything and leads automatically to the conclusion that something dodgy is happening. It is easier to tar everything with the same brush rather than understand properly what is happening. I am not suggesting that everything is perfect or that there is nothing that HMRC should look at – quite the opposite. But if we are not careful we could end up with outcomes that create more problems than they solve.

Readers will have noted the ‘exposure’ of well-known individuals for holding overseas property through a company. There is a host of reasons why ownership might be structured this way many of them having nothing to do with tax. But even when there...