Profession needs to put house in order over avoidance
13 November 2014Comments (0)
The accountancy profession needs to put its house in order over the
role it plays in facilitating tax avoidance, according to Rob
Whiteman, CEO of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and
Accountancy (CIPFA)
Addressing delegates at the World Congress of Accountants (WCOA), he
said that aggressive avoidance schemes were "unethical", adding that
professionals should help governments to find and close tax loopholes.
"We have a duty to pay taxes, a duty to create public services, a duty
to ensure that society can function well," he said.
"The profession has a role in promoting that people should pay an
appropriate amount of tax."
Whiteman warned that the profession risked dissuading a new generation
of accountants from joining the profession by its repeated involvement
with well-publicised cases of tax avoidance.
"I think there are issues for the profession to think about. We want
to encourage the very best people to come into the profession.
"I think that more than any other issue at the moment, this issue of
the role of the accountancy profession in tax is perhaps holding back
our reputation, and I would like argue to argue [that] we put our
house in order."
His comments came just minutes after Friedrich Rödler, chair of the
Federation of European Accountants' tax policy group, joked that
"there are some countries where dodging tax is almost a national
sport", adding that the subject was particularly exciting as
Luxembourg had been "named, shamed, and blamed" following a leak of
28,000 scheme-approving tax documents.
Bill Dodwell, the head of tax policy at Big Four firm Deloitte UK,
argued against claims that businesses always chose to follow avoidance
schemes, saying it was not right to accuse them of acting unethically
when their behaviour was dictated by commercial circumstances.
"It is incredibly difficult to define clearly what is tax avoidance,
what is tax planning, what is aggressive, what is regular," Dodwell
said.
"You cannot really say to someone 'you are making a moral choice' if
the choices open to them are actually dictated by their commercial
circumstances."
Grace Perez-Navarro, the deputy director at the OECD's centre for tax
policy, explained that the main issue with the "Lux-leaks" was that
they highlighted degrees of inconsistency in rulings, adding that tax
rulings for business were not necessarily bad.
She said, "Rulings per se are not a bad thing [but] transparency is
important, and non-discrimination is important."
Perez-Navarro also said that aggressive tax planning was just one of
many things that had prompted the OECD to reassess the dispute
resolution mechanism, saying improvements to which were "a very key
priority".
"Disputes are increasing," she said. "[This is] partly because of
uncertainty, partly because of countries taking creative
interpretations of rules they currently don't like the outcomes of.
"We also have a lot of aggressive tax planning [and] a lot more cross
border transactions than we have ever had before."
Oliver Griffin
- See more at: http://economia.icaew.com/news/november-2014/profession-needs-to-put-house-in-order-over-avoidance#sthash.ynC5ggsD.dpuf
--
CA Ramachandran Mahadevan,M.Com.,F.C.A.,
I-708,Mantri Tranquil,Subramanyapura Post,
Bangalore-560061
Karnataka,India.
+91 80 42011024
You never achieve success unless you like what you are doing."
--Dale Carnegie,
American self-help author and lecturer
13 November 2014Comments (0)
The accountancy profession needs to put its house in order over the
role it plays in facilitating tax avoidance, according to Rob
Whiteman, CEO of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and
Accountancy (CIPFA)
Addressing delegates at the World Congress of Accountants (WCOA), he
said that aggressive avoidance schemes were "unethical", adding that
professionals should help governments to find and close tax loopholes.
"We have a duty to pay taxes, a duty to create public services, a duty
to ensure that society can function well," he said.
"The profession has a role in promoting that people should pay an
appropriate amount of tax."
Whiteman warned that the profession risked dissuading a new generation
of accountants from joining the profession by its repeated involvement
with well-publicised cases of tax avoidance.
"I think there are issues for the profession to think about. We want
to encourage the very best people to come into the profession.
"I think that more than any other issue at the moment, this issue of
the role of the accountancy profession in tax is perhaps holding back
our reputation, and I would like argue to argue [that] we put our
house in order."
His comments came just minutes after Friedrich Rödler, chair of the
Federation of European Accountants' tax policy group, joked that
"there are some countries where dodging tax is almost a national
sport", adding that the subject was particularly exciting as
Luxembourg had been "named, shamed, and blamed" following a leak of
28,000 scheme-approving tax documents.
Bill Dodwell, the head of tax policy at Big Four firm Deloitte UK,
argued against claims that businesses always chose to follow avoidance
schemes, saying it was not right to accuse them of acting unethically
when their behaviour was dictated by commercial circumstances.
"It is incredibly difficult to define clearly what is tax avoidance,
what is tax planning, what is aggressive, what is regular," Dodwell
said.
"You cannot really say to someone 'you are making a moral choice' if
the choices open to them are actually dictated by their commercial
circumstances."
Grace Perez-Navarro, the deputy director at the OECD's centre for tax
policy, explained that the main issue with the "Lux-leaks" was that
they highlighted degrees of inconsistency in rulings, adding that tax
rulings for business were not necessarily bad.
She said, "Rulings per se are not a bad thing [but] transparency is
important, and non-discrimination is important."
Perez-Navarro also said that aggressive tax planning was just one of
many things that had prompted the OECD to reassess the dispute
resolution mechanism, saying improvements to which were "a very key
priority".
"Disputes are increasing," she said. "[This is] partly because of
uncertainty, partly because of countries taking creative
interpretations of rules they currently don't like the outcomes of.
"We also have a lot of aggressive tax planning [and] a lot more cross
border transactions than we have ever had before."
Oliver Griffin
- See more at: http://economia.icaew.com/news/november-2014/profession-needs-to-put-house-in-order-over-avoidance#sthash.ynC5ggsD.dpuf
--
CA Ramachandran Mahadevan,M.Com.,F.C.A.,
I-708,Mantri Tranquil,Subramanyapura Post,
Bangalore-560061
Karnataka,India.
+91 80 42011024
You never achieve success unless you like what you are doing."
--Dale Carnegie,
American self-help author and lecturer
No comments:
Post a Comment