Pandora Papers – law vs morality

Once it was thought that there was no moral dimension to giving tax advice. The assumption was that everyone was justified in arranging their affairs to pay as little tax as possible. There was no suggestion that advising how best that could be done might be culpable or immoral. The test to be applied was legality not whether people might consider avoiding tax to amount to sharp practice or poor citizenship.

Helping the immoral rich

Times have changed. Artificial schemes which probably don’t work may now involve professional misconduct on the part of a regulated adviser who facilitates them. Arrangements involving offshore jurisdictions which could not be described as artificial but which lack easy transparency may be criticised because they could cloak undetectable criminality or tax evasion.

At its broadest it may be said that it is wrong for advisers to facilitate the rehabilitation...