How does money get “off shore” in the first place?
Can’t they implement stupid taxes on any money leaving the country? Like 25-50% or something?
As I understand it (and conceding that my knowledge is somewhat limited - I have a background in accountancy but all my clients were SME’s, who don’t use these schemes) it’s done through a combination of limited companies, shell companies, and trusts. The assets all get moved around in such a way that the super wealthy technically don’t own their own stuff anymore. They just own the company that owns the company that owns the assets, with one or more of the companies being registered in a tax haven rather than the UK, so that UK taxes don’t apply.
A decent government with sufficient backbone to stand up to the wealthy would close down loopholes like that, ensuring the assets are taxed when they “leave” the UK or taxing the owners regardless of whether they use a tax haven or not. It won’t happen, because neither of the main parties have the courage to stand up to the super rich.
I would love to see someone grow a spine and ban that overseas cop out. Shareholder companies should owning property should pay a tax rated at its value. It is used too much just to dodge tax and inheritances.
I would love to see that too! I’d also like to see capital gains and dividends taxes equalised with income tax - although these taxes were intended to encourage investment, the actual effect has been for the wealthy to essentially claim their income they get from working is actually capital gains or dividends, thus paying less tax. Plus there’s not a lot of evidence that lower taxes on dividends and capital gains boosts investment anyway.
