New Tax Policy Guidelines for 2013-15 provide for a 20% tax on undistributed profits of controled foreign companies (CFC) payable be parent holding companies. Ministry of Finance believes this should help fight capital flight from parents to low tax jurisdictions. But experts believe this may lead to relocation of major holdings from Russian soil if rules will be too strict or applied rigorously.…

So, after much time away from the blogosphere, here is my response to the Budget speech a few weeks ago.  A bit of a groundhog moment really as nearly everything had been leaked to the press beforehand.  There were still a few surprises though.

In case you haven’t heard, the 50% tax rate is being reduced to 45% from April 2013 (helpfully giving all those who avoided the 50% rate when it…

'If regulations are not clear and orders are not thoroughly explained, it is the commander’s fault.’

Sun Tzu quoted in the Shih Chi (‘Records of the Grand Historian’) by Ssu–ma Ch’ien

Last August HMRC published a revised version of its Litigation and Settlement Strategy (a wonderful document which refers to ‘customer’ 26 times in five pages and tells us that HMRC has a ‘customer-centric’ business strategy). We…

In February I went to a talk about the history of tax organized by the Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers. The speaker was Professor Chantal Stebbings, the subject, ‘Victorian Asylums: the Tax Factor’.

City Livery Companies are not really my thing but I had joined when a friend of mine was Master (or should it be Mistress?) and she felt that the Company needed more of a…

Empty homes are, quite possibly, the hot topic at the moment.  Many have looked at empty homes as providing the much needed stop gap whilst new homes are built.

The simple fact is that we cannot build home fast enough to meet demand, and somewhere in the region 300,000 properties remain empty, and have done so for some considerable time.

Moves are afoot to try and stop this, from taxing people with second homes to offering 'bribes', in the form of the new homes bonus, to owners…

‘I had that Christopher Marlowe in my boat once.’

Taxi-Boatman in ‘Shakespeare in Love’ 

Since getting back from a holiday in Costa Rica in 2005 I have been ordering my coffee beans from Café Milagro in Quepos. Over the years I must have received at least ten parcels without a hitch.



My latest consignment, however, was intercepted by the UK Border Agency (acting on behalf of HMRC) despite the parcel being clearly marked ‘Finca Rosa Blanca Eco Estate Coffee – Whole Bean’ and the Customs Declaration describing the…