Richard Curtis

Richard Curtis was deputy editor and editor of Taxation from 2002 until 2021. He can be contacted by email at richard.curtis@gmx.com or phone: 07818 521 296.

ARTICLES

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Comment

The Big Sleep

Following the recent Fair Dues report on IHT, RICHARD CURTIS considers death and taxes.

IT SEEMS STRANGE to me that human beings, as the one species that can apparently comprehend the inevitability of our own death, spend so little time planning for it and, what is more, actually spend most of our time ignoring the certainty of it. I suppose that the alternative is too awful to contemplate. Perhaps it was best summed up by Woody Allen:

'B' Share Schemes

Shadows, Surpluses and Shares

RICHARD CURTIS considers the implications of 'B' share schemes.

Comment

Black & White

RICHARD CURTIS reports on an apparent recent change of view by the Capital Taxes Office of the Revenue that may be of benefit to the disabled and offer some comfort to their families.

VAT Tribunals

RICHARD CURTIS reviews VAT tribunal decisions concerning whether an undertaking was a business or a charitable activity; and whether a piece of land was used as a car park.

Charity, not business

St Paul's Community Project Limited operated a day nursery in a disadvantaged part of Birmingham. In 2000, it leased an area of land from the local council and on this it constructed a building from which it operated its (mostly) charitable activities.

VAT Tribunal

Heads and Hands

RICHARD CURTIS considers the VAT definition of 'consultant'.

THE INDIAN PALMIST was the trading name of Mr Mohammed, a clairvoyant and palmist. His training started at the age of six and in doing this he was following a family tradition stretching back 200 years. He had been in practice for approximately 30 years.

National Minimum Wage

A Bitter Pill

RICHARD CURTIS continues to recommend an holistic view to tax questions.

EVERY SO OFTEN there is a query in the Readers' Forum section of Taxation that asks a question nominally about tax, but which then starts one thinking that there may be related, non-tax, issues. A couple of months ago, two queries started me thinking about the national minimum wage.

Pub and grub

VAT Tribunal

All Very Puzzling

RICHARD CURTIS considers business and non-business activities.

Money and Masochism

RICHARD CURTIS reports on the twenty-first session of Standing Committee A's review of the Finance Bill.

Mumbo Jumbo

RICHARD CURTIS reports on the penultimate session of Standing Committee A's review of the Finance Bill 2004.

THE FIRST FEW minutes of the twentieth and penultimate session of Committee A's deliberations were devoted to the conclusion of the pensions simplification provisions, and with the end of that matter, Jon Healey (the Economic Secretary to the Treasury) noted that 'in many ways we have reached the end in the committee proceedings'. However there did remain some points of interest, as subsequent discussions were to prove.

RICHARD CURTIS asks whether the Revenue could do more to rectify its mistakes.