A long-standing principle of British law has been that there is a clear difference between 'tax evasion' and 'tax avoidance'. It has also been an accepted principal of the same law that 'the law is the law', in other words, the law is interpreted as it is written.
Now, all that is set to change. The Government is proposing to introduced sever penalties for anyone who advises people how to avoid tax; note, that this is about the wholly legal 'avoidance' rather than the clearly illegal 'evasion'. As the responsible department, the Treasury plans to introduce new rules designed to stop people using loopholes which were 'never intended' in the original legislation, in order to "root out" tax avoidance at source.
No one seems to be very bothered about this and yet it is an astonishing advance in the powers of the state. No longer will legislation have to be properly written, it will be sufficient for it to have an 'intention'. Separately, something which is absolutely legal in itself, tax avoidance, will be fully criminalised, even though successive Governments have actually introduced measures that specifically promote avoidance in schemes such as ISAs and SIPPs. Effectively, tax avoidance will no longer exist outside of approved Government schemes; all other avoidance will be treated as evasion, whatever the law actually says..
If the proposed measures do come into effect, it will be the beginning of the end for democracy and law in this country. Subsequently, any Government will be able to claim that anyone is in breach of any law because whatever they've done was 'intended' to be outlawed, even if the relevant statute doesn't actually say so. Those who frame our legislation will become increasingly sloppy in its formation, relying on this principal to cover up their incompetence.
I find this shocking, appalling and terrifying. Why is there so little fuss about it ?
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