A top national Labour spokesperson has hit out at the offshore tax advisors who were hired by Sefton Council to help them buy the Bootle New Strand shopping centre without Stamp Duty via a Luxembourg company. Nationally and locally it seems that Labour is taking completely different positions.



Labour MP Margaret Hodge (above left) is chair of Parliament's influential Public Accounts Committee. Of PWC (Price Waterhouse Cooper) she said:
"Contrary to its denials, the tax arrangements PWC promotes, based on artificially diverting profits to Luxembourg through intra-company loans, bear all the characteristics of a mass-marketed tax avoidance scheme." This wek, Ms Hodge hit out again at PWC and the other big three accountancy firms:

"“Until advisers are hauled to account and properly punished for inventing schemes that are purely aimed at avoiding tax, the army of lawyers and accountants will continue to prosper.”

Yet Labour-run Sefton Council, led by Cllr Ian Maher (above, right) went to PWC as their major advisors in the New Strand purchase which was also bought through a Luxembourg-based company. So far, Sefton Council had put £684,000 into the pockets of various firms of private 'advisors' on this sale, decided in secret in April - and they say the process is not completed yet.

There has been controversy, too, over Margaret Hodge, in respect of her own personal experience of tax avoidance. Ms Hodge's father left £1.5 million to his children through an offshore family trust. The Times also reported that three-quarters of the shares in the family’s Liechtenstein trust had previously been held in Panama, which Ms Hodge herself described as “one of the most secretive jurisdictions” with “the least protection anywhere in the world against money-laundering”.

Margaret Hodge was among the beneficiaries in 2011 of the winding-up of a Liechtenstein foundation that held shares in Stemcor, the steel-trading business set up by her father Hans Oppenheimer, These shares were brought onshore using a scheme called the 'Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility', that offered reduced penalties and no risk of prosecution for Britons moving undeclared assets back to the UK. Ms Hodge has attacked the Labour Party nationally for accepting financial support from PWC. Labour Shadow Cabinet members received more than £540,000 in research assistance from the firm in one 18-month period alone which Mrs Hodge said was "inappropriate".

Originally Posted by roving-eye

A top national Labour spokesperson has hit out at the offshore tax advisors who were hired by Sefton Council to help them buy the Bootle New Strand shopping centre without Stamp Duty via a Luxembourg company. Nationally and locally it seems that Labour is taking completely different positions.



Labour MP Margaret Hodge (above left) is chair of Parliament's influential Public Accounts Committee. Of PWC (Price Waterhouse Cooper) she said:
"Contrary to its denials, the tax arrangements PWC promotes, based on artificially diverting profits to Luxembourg through intra-company loans, bear all the characteristics of a mass-marketed tax avoidance scheme." This wek, Ms Hodge hit out again at PWC and the other big three accountancy firms:

"“Until advisers are hauled to account and properly punished for inventing schemes that are purely aimed at avoiding tax, the army of lawyers and accountants will continue to prosper.”

Yet Labour-run Sefton Council, led by Cllr Ian Maher (above, right) went to PWC as their major advisors in the New Strand purchase which was also bought through a Luxembourg-based company. So far, Sefton Council had put £684,000 into the pockets of various firms of private 'advisors' on this sale, decided in secret in April - and they say the process is not completed yet.

There has been controversy, too, over Margaret Hodge, in respect of her own personal experience of tax avoidance. Ms Hodge's father left £1.5 million to his children through an offshore family trust. The Times also reported that three-quarters of the shares in the family’s Liechtenstein trust had previously been held in Panama, which Ms Hodge herself described as “one of the most secretive jurisdictions” with “the least protection anywhere in the world against money-laundering”.

Margaret Hodge was among the beneficiaries in 2011 of the winding-up of a Liechtenstein foundation that held shares in Stemcor, the steel-trading business set up by her father Hans Oppenheimer, These shares were brought onshore using a scheme called the 'Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility', that offered reduced penalties and no risk of prosecution for Britons moving undeclared assets back to the UK. Ms Hodge has attacked the Labour Party nationally for accepting financial support from PWC. Labour Shadow Cabinet members received more than £540,000 in research assistance from the firm in one 18-month period alone which Mrs Hodge said was "inappropriate".

"Until advisers are hauled to account and properly punished for inventing schemes that are purely aimed at avoiding tax, the army of lawyers and accountants will continue to prosper.” Well good luck with that! PwC is a massive world wide corporation worth £billions, on top of that they are the sponsors for a large number of events and organisations, and invest £millions all around the world - it will cost a huge amount to sue them and even then if found guilty - in itself a very difficult long term task - they would be fined a mere drop in the ocean to the assets they own - there will never be any shortage of clients who use their services. The government itself has inadvertently been the engine for a variety of tax avoidance schemes by its own policy to immigration. The overseas people that have been attracted to the UK are either people who have been unsuccessful in their own country and have come to the UK erroneously believing that they will prosper, or those who have recognised an opportunity to prosper by the facility of the soft liberal attitude afforded them.
Such activity is contagious - it is not only huge corporations who are benefitting. While retail companies are being highly taxed, they will engage in ways to reduce their responsibilities. The government receive fewer taxes and cannot afford to pay for benefits and public service workers. So the taxes are increased. Public service workers and those on benefits demand more money and businesses move out of the country as do many people. Even fewer taxes........
The immigrants who have been enticed to the UK to increase the amount of taxes received are an expense to the country in other ways - so the overall contribution from this source runs thin. These people will be the first to leave when they are unable to obtain sufficient funds. The short term house building projects to create additional funds creates a huge threat to the country in the long term. A large number of these houses are being purchased by overseas corporations. If the government were serious about housing people they would be subsidising the houses already on the market - there are more houses on the British market than there has ever been before. Where does honesty begin and end?