howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Courtesy of the Sunday Times.
Britain’s richest man, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who was knighted less than a year ago for his services to business and investment, has been planning to avoid up to £4bn in tax after switching his home and his fortune to Monaco. The Sunday Times can disclose that the prominent Brexiteer, who built up the chemicals giant Ineos, has been working with the accountant PwC on the tax avoidance plan. This would see him and senior executives Andy Currie and John Reece legally share between £1bn and £10bn tax-free, depriving the Treasury of between £400m and £4bn.
A source with knowledge of the plan described the upper end of the range as “egregious” and said it involved “labyrinthine” structuring. Another source said the plan had not yet been finalised with numbers still “being bounced around” and suggested it would eventually settle towards the bottom of the range. News that Ratcliffe, who last week criticised the EU over its “stupid” green taxes, has been planning to take at least £1bn offshore sparked a huge political row last night. It comes after Sir James Dyson, another vocal Brexit supporter, announced he was moving the headquarters of his vacuum cleaners empire to Singapore.
The Ineos tax planning is understood to have caused alarm at PwC, which has been concerned about the potential for reputational damage if Ratcliffe and his lieutenants decide to aim for a big number.
PwC’s UK management board is understood to have consulted its public interest body, chaired by the former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell, as to whether it should refuse to help or even resign from the Ineos account. Sir Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat leader, described Ratcliffe’s planning as “deeply cynical”. He said: “There are thousands of our constituents who are being bankrupted by HM Revenue & Customs action over small-scale tax avoidance while big fish like Ratcliffe are just treating taxation as purely voluntary.
“The idea that we should be dishing out knighthoods to people who have no commitment to this country is rather shameful.” John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, said: “The greed of these super-rich tax avoiders seems to have no bounds. “Don’t they realise that every penny they hide away in their tax havens is a penny not spent on our NHS treating the sick, or social care looking after our lonely, isolated elderly, or the education of our children?”
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Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 2,900
I suspect that's a Brexit-linked story only if you argue that Monaco is part of the EU. If so, then it's similar to P&O's re-flagging to Cyprus.
(Not my real name.)
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,840
Better start putting away some extra pennies now if you want that new Carrera:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47270616'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
its allright wgs you will get eu food parcels while you paying for it. lol
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Weird Granny Slater wrote:
Oh dear oh dear, oh dear - got the £93 grand no problem but that 10% has knocked me out the running. Now I will never know what a Porsche 911 looks like on a pile of bricks.
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 2,900
"However, Leave supporters have dismissed fears over tariffs on imported cars, arguing that German manufacturers would oppose such an obstacle to one of their biggest markets." I rather thought that UK import tariffs were, WTO not withstanding, a matter for the UK.
(Not my real name.)
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,655
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Dover Pilot- Registered: 28 Jul 2018
- Posts: 332
Good riddance to Honda. The sooner we get rid of manufacturing in the UK and fully switch to a service led economy the better. EU have cleared the way for the banking sector to keep going after a no deal.
https://news.sky.com/story/honda-to-stun-ministers-with-closure-of-swindon-factory-11641154howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Juncker is now saying that the UK only has to ask for an extension to Article 50 and it will be granted although my understanding is that all 27 member states have to approve it.
Dover Pilot- Registered: 28 Jul 2018
- Posts: 332
No chance. France wouldn't agree as they want us out of the EU as much as we want out. Give Ireland & Scotland independence and lets embrace a no-deal and take back control of England.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
The trouble is N. Ireland and Scotland don't want independence at the moment.
Weird Granny Slater- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,840
Re post #3,512. But don't forget Wales: after all, small(er) is beautiful(er).
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
dover pilot, we allways had control evan at the border at calias.
Ross Miller- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,680
Take back control of what exactly?
Do the recent decisions by Dyson, Nissan and Honda (none of which were due to Brexit, but due to market circumstances) not ably demonstrate that governments have little control over industry .
Didn't the crash of 2008 show that governments have minimal control and options around fiscal policy and the movement of capital or for that matter the economy.
Oh and every trade deal involves both parties giving up a bit of sovereignty, as both need to agree to standards etc over with the other party has control.
Or did you mean migration where we have always had control over non-eu migration yet have failed to control it effectively
https://news.sky.com/story/non-eu-migration-to-uk-highest-for-14-years-but-eu-migration-slows-11566853 &
https://fullfact.org/immigration/eu-migration-and-uk/Judith Roberts, Brian Dixon and howard mcsweeney1 like this
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ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
Whist agreeing with much of what you say, Ross, I don't believe that the recent decisions to curtail or or remove UK investment by Nissan, Toyota, Sony, Panasonic etc was solely due to changes in trading conditions.
It may suit certain political leanings to assert that Brexit was not a factor but that is either delusional or biased.
Take Honda for example. The same executive (Ian Howells) who rather adroitly spun the announcement yesterday was telling us less than 2 years ago that leaving the Customs Union was "unprecedented in terms of its total impact" on his business. The Japanese government wrote an unpublished letter to May after the referendum in 2016 pointing out the potential impact of no deal. Poor old Greg Clark did his best yesterday but even his words hinted at the reality of the situation we all now face.
It's a bit like saying that P&O's decision to operate the ships under a Cypriot flag wasn't Brexit related.
Neil Moors- Registered: 3 Feb 2016
- Posts: 1,225
I do like the irony that Brexiteers are running around, incandescent with rage that Brexit is being blamed for something (Honda) when it probably had nothing to do with it. That irony, of course, being that these are the very same people that have happily blamed the EU for absolutely everything over the decades.
On the substantive point, I do think you can make a case that Brexit is giving political cover for anyone that wants to reduce UK investment. You can see how a company might bring forward plans to reduce UK investment if Brexit, rather than those companies will get the flak. In that way, Brexit, like it or not, is contributing.
At the very least, it's nice to see Brexiteers on the back foot and having to defend/justify their vision. You can add Michael Gove's comments yesterday about applying tarifs too - so it all begins.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
so theres truth in the rymor that honda and other car manufacters are leaving because of Brexit insecurity.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Brian Dixon wrote:so theres truth in the rymor that honda and other car manufacters are leaving because of Brexit insecurity.
Not exactly true Brian, the current situation hasn't helped but the Nipponese giants seem to be moving things back home. Fujitsu closing their German operation suggests that the main market in future is Asia rather like Dyson.
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
Now that the Japanese-EU free trade agreement is complete, why would the Japanese manufacturing giants opt to remain in the UK given the uncertainty of our position? A no deal is looking increasingly likely.
They no longer need to remain here because they now know that they will be able to export to the EU on a tariff free basis from their home factories. The increased logistical overheads are more than compensated by the kudos of bringing major manufacturing back.
The agreement with the EU brings together the world's 3rd largest economy with a single market of 580 million people. Sadly it looks increasingly likely that we will be sidelined from it.
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