Tax avoiders will be forced to hand £500m to the HMRC, following a ruling by the Supreme Court.
Times
This is the story of the long-running Cotter case, scrutinised by Mike Truman in Taxation’s latest issue. The court decided the Revenue was entitled to withhold a tax payment arising from an avoidance arrangement while it was under investigation.
Items as varied as Charles Darwin’s notes and letters and lyrics written by John Lennon have been left to the nation in lieu of death duties under the cultural gifts scheme.
Financial Times, Independent, Times
The cultural gifts scheme has probably not received as much publicity as the conditional exemption from inheritance tax under IHTA 1984, s 30 et seq. The scheme encourages lifetime giving in return for a tax reduction rather than gifts from estates.
HMRC are using Google Earth to investigate homeowners believed to be paying too little tax.
Mail
The Revenue also trawls social networking sites for much the same purpose, as a digital extension of the investigative work the department has always carried out.
Thousands of savers who own hybrid bonds in the stricken Co-operative bank could benefit from a tax loophole that will boost payouts from a last-ditch rescue plan.
Times
Is this avoidance or tax planning, the latter being largely acceptable to the public because it is ordinary taxpayers who will benefit?
This year’s autumn statement from the chancellor has been delayed by 24 hours – from 4 December to 5 December – to fit in with the travel plans of the prime minister, David Cameron, who is to visit China.
Financial Times
The autumn statement tends to be less important from a tax standpoint than the day the draft Finance Bill clauses are released, which this year is scheduled to be 10 December.
George Osborne is looking at a radical plan to abolish all jobs tax for bosses if they take on unemployed young people.
Sun
It is already planned that businesses and charities will receive a credit of up to £2,000 against their employer’s National Insurance contributions. This suggestion is that the liability would be negated when an unemployed person aged below 25 is taken on.