Tax avoidance in the spotlight

KEY POINTS

• Is Dame Margaret Hodge the tax profession’s equivalent of Marmite?
• The impression was given that large corporates could choose their tax rate.
• The use of tax havens in employee trusts and more generally among large firms.
• The role of whistleblowers in the UK and abroad in exposing tax avoidance.
• Is the manipulation of tax reliefs ethical or outrageous?

Margaret Hodge’s book  Called to Account has recently been published in paperback and is guaranteed to anger just about every tax adviser who reads it. However not all will be irate for the same reason.

It seems highly likely that those perusing this column will recall that Hodge now a dame was the high profile chair of the House of Commons’ public accounts committee (PAC) from 2010...