News | March 14, 2019

Spring Statement reaction: Wedlake Bell comments in eprivateclient – 14/03/2019

2019 Spring Statement reaction: Overshadowed by Brexit but tax evasion and avoidance still ‘extremely high’ on government’s agenda

Yesterday’s (13/03/2019) Spring Statement by Chancellor Philip Hammond was overshadowed by Brexit and there were no major tax announcements made, but Mr Hammond did confirm that tackling tax evasion and tax avoidance remains “extremely high” on the government’s agenda.

Camilla Wallace, head of the Private Client Group at law firm Wedlake Bell highlighted how the government used the Spring Statement to publish two policy papers outlining what it continues to do in respect to tackling tax evasion and avoidance particularly in respect of offshore assets:

“Notable in these papers was the close link that the government is now making between ‘evasion’ and ‘avoidance’ – the government has now outlined a definition which emphasises that ‘avoidance’ is not dissimilar to ‘evasion’ if it involves exploiting the rules to gain an advantage that Parliament did not intend.”

This article was originally published by eprivateclient, please click here to read the full article. (£)