Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

George Osborne accused of lying to Parliament on his 'hard line' against corporate tax avoiders 7/12/2014

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/george-osborne-accused-of-lying-to-parliament-on-his-hard-line-against-corporate-tax-avoiders-9692327.html

George Osborne is facing calls to apologise in Parliament after the official statistics body ruled he used “inappropriate” figures to trumpet the Government’s success in cracking down on tax avoidance in the last Budget.

The Chancellor told MPs in March that HM Revenue and Customs was “collecting twice as much [tax] as before” through new measures to target super-rich individuals and multinational companies, who employ expensive accountants and lawyers to shelter their vast wealth in overseas tax havens.

However, inquiries by The Independent and Private Eye established that Mr Osborne was not referring to physical money already banked by the State, and was only outlining a target of tax collected for this Parliament – one that was based on a completely different measurement from the previous five-year election cycle.

The case was referred to Sir Andrew Dilnot, head of the UK Statistics Authority, who has now concluded that direct comparisons between the figures was “inappropriate”.

However, he laid the blame at the door of HMRC, which he said had admitted its “briefing to Ministers was based on its assessment at the time, and that some of the public announcements made about performance improvements were therefore incorrect”.

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls told The Independent: “Now that it has been officially confirmed that the Chancellor used incorrect figures in his Budget speech, he should apologise and correct the record. While the amount of uncollected tax actually rose last year, the Chancellor was using smoke and mirrors to hide his own failure.”

Will Moy, director of independent factchecking organisation Full Fact – which made the initial referral to Sir Andrew Dilnot – said: “This intervention shows how badly we need independent official statistics on tax avoidance.”

The row centres on an accounting change by HMRC in 2010, the year Mr Osborne became Chancellor. Since the amendment, the national tax agency has significantly boosted its balance sheet by adding in “revenue protected” figures - a prediction of extra future tax paid by those who get caught and, HMRC assumes, will mend their ways.

The accounting change allowed HMRC to hand the Chancellor internal estimates for “compliance yield” of £100 billion collected over this Parliament, against just £52 billion in the five years before the last election.

This allowed Mr Osborne to tell MPs in the Budget that the Government had collected “twice as much [tax] as before through compliance”.

The news will add to concerns that the Government and HMRC are publicly claiming to clamp down on tax avoidance, while in private pursuing quite the opposite.

The Independent previously reported how Andrea Leadsom, the new City Minister, used controversial trusts to reduce her potential tax bill and took advantage of offshore banking arrangements for her buy-to-let property company.

A HMRC spokesperson said: “We’ve discovered and corrected the overstated growth in compliance revenues for the last two years and we have made this clear in our annual report published in July 2014.”

Somebody has to nip back down to PHQs again!

Dave Camoron ‏@EtonOldBoys 5m minutes ago

Despite the Tory Media BBC and Sky kicking Milliband all time, Labour have surged ahead in the Polls by 4 points, Brits had enough of Tories

HAYS HAYS HAYS ARE YOU WATCHING>>>>>>>>>>>THE TRUTH.

U.K. Fails to Win Budget Payment Cut as EU Defies Cameron
By Svenja O’Donnell and James G. Neuger Nov 7, 2014 2:24 PM GMT

Britain failed to win a cut in an extra payment demanded by the European Union, complicating Prime Minister David Cameron’s efforts to fend off an anti-EU movement at home.

EU finance ministers agreed in Brussels today to stretch out Britain’s payment of a 2.1 billion-euro ($2.6 billion) bill until September 2015, while leaving the amount untouched.

The bill, part of an EU funding reallocation that forced Britain and eight other countries to pay more, has lengthened the list of grievances that prompted Cameron to propose a referendum in 2017 that could take Britain out of the bloc.

“The amount can’t be questioned,” Austrian Finance Minister Hans Joerg Schelling told reporters. He said an installment plan is in the works for countries that owe money to pay by an “end date” in 2015.

Britain’s room for maneuver on the one-time payment -- labeled a “technical” adjustment by the European Commission -- is limited by a blossoming anti-EU movement that threatens to make Cameron a one-term prime minister.

The EU spends about 140 billion euros annually, mostly to support infrastructure projects and agriculture. Paying in has been politically sensitive since Britain joined the EU in 1973, and the country still enjoys an annual rebate negotiated by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

On the principle that the wealthy should pay more taxes, Britain was presented with the additional bill last month after revised gross domestic product data back to 2002 showed it was more prosperous than previously thought. Italy and Greece also got bigger bills, while Germany and France will get money back.

Deferred-Payments Plan

The sums shifting between EU governments amount to 9.5 billion euros, the biggest reallocation ever. In an average year, budget revisions total 1 billion euros. The commission today proposed a deferred-payments plan that would kick in when more than 5 billion euros is at stake.

Cameron railed at the European bureaucracy for an “appalling way to behave” when he learned of the payment demand. Speaking today while the Brussels negotiations were taking place, he predicted a “major problem” if other EU governments don’t budge on the amount and the timetable.

“We won’t pay 2 billion euros on the first of December and we don’t believe in paying anything like that amount,” Cameron said today in Helsinki after a meeting with Nordic leaders.

In Brussels, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said Britain’s payments in the second half of next year will only be about 850 million pounds ($1.3 billion). He arrived at that figure by bringing forward a rebate that Britain is scheduled to get anyway.

Better Deal

The opposition Labour Party has accused Cameron of alienating the allies Britain needs in Europe to secure a better deal. Britain “will have to work to repair relations with Germany, whose backing will be crucial,” Labour finance spokesman Ed Balls and foreign affairs spokesman Douglas Alexander wrote in the Guardian newspaper yesterday.

The U.K. Independence Party, which wants to hustle Britain out of the EU, may gain momentum in a special election in a parliamentary district southeast of London on Nov. 20. It will be represented by a defector from the Conservatives, Mark Reckless. Polls show almost half of voters back his bid to retain his seat.

Another defector, Douglas Carswell, was re-elected on a UKIP ticket last month, becoming the anti-EU party’s first lawmaker to sit in the House of Commons. The national election is next May.

To contact the reporters on this story: Svenja O’Donnell in Brussels at sodonnell@bloomberg.net; James G. Neuger in Brussels at jneuger@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net Patrick Henry, Jones Hayden

TORY CHEATS..................................

In Brussels, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said Britain’s payments in the second half of next year will only be about 850 million pounds ($1.3 billion). He arrived at that figure by bringing forward a rebate that Britain is scheduled to get anyway.


YOU COULDNT MAKE IT UP JUST HOW FAR THIS TORY MOB WILL GO TO LIE TO THE ELECTORATE.

gf I am no labour man but having spoken to my family about the lies from the government and reports that the con party are going to take away the pensioners
benefits for those that do not claim . pension credits making those that did not work better off than those that did

we are going to ask the party to clarify this point and if fact we will vote labour for the first time

Good on you TANKER.

You have to remember Im not anti tory just this present shambles.

and the country still enjoys an annual rebate negotiated by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

i'm glad the family does what pater familias instructs!

I dont believe it Osbourne just on National Radio claiming he as cut the surcharge in half.

Lying Bas-ard.

All thats happened is half as been put back 9 months.

What a scumster government.

Ive a good mind to get in touch with my local Tory candidate and tell him I will never vote Tory again, Im seething mad about this issue and the lies coming out of the Tories.

In fact I will, Ill send him a letter, and declare I will not ever ever vote conservative again in my life time.

gf have just sent GRANT SNAPPS a e mail if he does not reply then its fact they are going to it pensioners that saved .

What do you expect, the entire government is made up of MP's that have never given a hard days graft in their miserable lives... Find me an MP with any 'grit' without needing a shovel I dare you..!

Good on you TANKER give him some stick.

aldwickk

Blair gave up half the rebate in return for reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, which didn't happen and still has not. He also gave up our veto on changes to EU legislation.

Ministers telling porkies, who'd have thunk it?


But the real question is....how did they think they could get away with it?

ah well, he had a fine record of all sorts of nasty things and has been raking in the cash in wheelbarrows every since - all in the aid of charity of course

"Blair gave up half the rebate in return for reform of the Common Agricultural Policy,"


The tories have had four years too many to remedy the situation!

Seemingly, all they have done is lined their own pockets and those of the backers in distance low tax areas.

Max, this one takes the biscuit it really does.

Its desperation obviously in light of UKIP chasing them.

I can only think if voters out there feel like I and TANKER today and 'realise the truth' they will leave the Tory party in droves.