There has always been a (sometimes thin) dividing line between tax avoidance (legal, working within the rules) and tax evasion (illegal, not paying, breaking the rules). HMRC doesn’t like either, of course, and as soon as some accountancy firm or barrister finds a hole in the law, they rush to plug it. It’s not good enough, though, to say that ‘avoidance’ is not fair or ‘within the spirit of the legislation’. There are plenty of things both they, and those who make and vote on tax laws, do which might not seem fair. Haven’t we been told that many MPs’ activities don’t actually break any rules…?
“HMRC scraps plans to tax pensions after death”
A couple of other Statement Highlights (in my world, anyway). A welcome ‘nothing happened’ on the treatment of pensions on death. They were never going to be liable to IHT (too complicated with trusts and trust law) but there was talk of making them income-taxable on the recipients at whatever age you die.
