Budget 2011: anti-avoidance

In addition to specific anti-avoidance measures such as those on disguised remuneration arrangements and certain SDLT schemes the Budget was notable for the announcement of what is intended to be a more coherent and co-ordinated attempt at tackling tax avoidance.

The details are contained in the document entitled Tackling tax avoidance (‘TTA’ for short). The overall impression gained from reading the TTA is that a slightly more intelligent ministerial team are now in charge. Lazy phrases such as ‘the right amount of tax’ and the deliberate attempt to equate tax avoidance with tax evasion appear to have been left behind. However disappointingly there is still plenty of management-guru speak. The use of vague and clever sounding words in a political context is almost always intended to deceive the reader and obscure the weakness of the author’s underlying arguments. Hence a...