{"id":33268,"date":"2013-10-30T10:57:29","date_gmt":"2013-10-30T10:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=da9427e12e9090696e1931175cf4274d"},"modified":"2013-10-30T10:57:29","modified_gmt":"2013-10-30T10:57:29","slug":"news-story-court-blocks-bonus-tax-avoidance-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=33268","title":{"rendered":"News story: Court blocks bonus tax avoidance scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Aberdeen Asset Management paid senior employees and directors over \u00a331 million free of income tax and National Insurance Contributions (<abbr title=\"National Insurance Contributions\">NICs<\/abbr>) between 2000 and 2003 using an Employee Benefit Trust (<abbr title=\"Employee Benefit Trust\">EBT<\/abbr>).<\/p>\n<p>The Scottish Court of Session last week backed HM Revenue and Customs\u2019 (<abbr title=\"HM Revenue and Customs\">HMRC<\/abbr>) argument that Pay As You Earn (<abbr title=\"Pay As You Earn\">PAYE<\/abbr>) and <abbr title=\"National Insurance Contributions\">NICs<\/abbr> should be paid on the bonuses, which were converted into shares under the complex scheme. The <abbr title=\"Pay As You Earn\">PAYE<\/abbr> and <abbr title=\"National Insurance Contributions\">NICs<\/abbr> at stake in the case totalled \u00a37 million.<\/p>\n<p>This is the latest in a series of court rulings against businesses that have tried to avoid <abbr title=\"Pay As You Earn\">PAYE<\/abbr> and <abbr title=\"National Insurance Contributions\">NICs<\/abbr> using schemes involving EBTs. The scheme used by Aberdeen Asset Management was outlawed in 2003.<\/p>\n<p>The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, David Gauke, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The Government has made almost \u00a31 billion available to <abbr title=\"HM Revenue and Customs\">HMRC<\/abbr> to tackle avoidance and evasion and to ensure that the minority who try to avoid their responsibilities pay the tax due.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">This scheme, like so many others, was a waste of time and money. The tribunal decision sends a clear message to anyone who is tempted to use avoidance schemes: <abbr title=\"HM Revenue and Customs\">HMRC<\/abbr> will pursue you and you\u2019re likely to end up having to pay the tax due, interest and the promoter\u2019s fees as well.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Jim Harra, Director General, Business Tax, <abbr title=\"HM Revenue and Customs\">HMRC<\/abbr>, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>This decision will be a big help when we come to argue other cases that are currently in the courts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">We hope this success will encourage more companies to cut their losses and come forward to settle their <abbr title=\"Employee Benefit Trust\">EBT<\/abbr> liabilities on the basis that this kind of avoidance scheme does not work.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An offshore tax avoidance scheme used by an FTSE 100-listed investment management company to pay its employees tax-free bonuses has been closed by Scotland\u2019s most senior court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33268"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}