{"id":9042,"date":"2025-02-13T15:14:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T15:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/?p=9042"},"modified":"2025-02-14T16:14:43","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T16:14:43","slug":"tax-justice-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/archives\/9042","title":{"rendered":"Tax Justice News Update"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From: Robert Palmer – Tax Justice UK<\/strong> <mail@taxjustice.uk<\/a>>
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2025 at 11:40
Subject: My last newsletter
To: <peterchallen@gmail.com<\/a>><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear Peter,
This is my last newsletter to you. Next week \u2013 almost seven years to the day after starting at Tax Justice UK \u2013 I will be leaving, and passing on this newsletter to a new pair of hands.
It\u2019s been an absolute pleasure leading our campaign for tax reform.

We\u2019ve had major victories<\/strong>
After our campaigning on the Panama Papers in 2017 and 2018 \u2013 when many of you signed up to this newsletter \u2013 the government started to crack down on dirty money flowing into the UK. Following pressure from us and our allies, the government\u00a0signed into law<\/a>\u00a0the Anti-Money Laundering Act in 2018 and the Economic Crime Act\u00a0in 2022<\/a>. Both of these made it harder to move dirty money through the UK. We couldn\u2019t have won these reforms without your help. Later in 2022, the government introduced<\/a>\u00a0a windfall tax on oil and gas giants, helped by pressure from our campaigning. In 2023 Conservative government\u00a0raised<\/a>\u00a0corporation tax from 19 to 25%, bringing it inline with an internationally agreed global minimum. We\u2019d lobbied successive governments on this.

Wins last year<\/strong>
Then at the Budget last year we saw\u00a04 out of 10<\/a>\u00a0of our tax reform proposals acted on: the government abolished non-dom status, raised capital gains tax, cut inheritance tax loopholes and doubled taxes on private jets. These achievements are part of a wider success – along with our allies we\u2019ve helped to shift the discussion on tax in this country so that taxing wealth is discussed as a clear political possibility. We\u2019ve come such a long way in the seven years I\u2019ve been at Tax Justice. I\u2019m so proud of what the team has achieved and that we\u2019re now part of a wider group of organisations and individuals demanding a fairer tax system. I\u2019m convinced that with your help we can go even further over the coming years. Thank you for all of your help. We\u2019d be nothing without supporters like you.

Jake Atkinson will be writing to you<\/strong>
Next week our Campaigns Manager, Jake Atkinson, will be taking this email over. A little about him: Jake is a committed campaigner who\u2019s led our work\u00a0demanding<\/a>\u00a0Amazon pay more tax.He regularly meets MPs and policy makers and our partners across the tax movement; and soon he\u2019ll be going on TV and radio as one of our spokespeople. You can follow him on Bluesky\u00a0here<\/strong><\/a>. Jake will have a lot to update you on. I\u2019m certainly looking forward to reading his emails.

Evading HMRC<\/strong>
One last thing. A story caught my eye yesterday that I wanted to share with you. It touches the core of what we fight for as a campaign group. Leading MPs\u00a0warned<\/a>\u00a0on Wednesday that HMRC is only investigating \u201cthe tip of the iceberg\u201d when it comes to tax evasion at the top of the system. They warn that HMRC is not properly investigating tax evasion via things like fraudulent use of UK company registrations and business insolvencies. They said it was \u201ctoo easy to register companies fraudulently\u201d. The story demonstrates one of the biggest problems we have with the UK tax system, namely: where HMRC is focusing its attention.

Focus on the richest<\/strong>
The MPs said HMRC was not being \u201csufficiently curious\u201d about pursuing tax evasion at the top of the system. Meanwhile 83,000 self-employed people on low incomes were\u00a0fined<\/a>\u00a0by HMRC last year for not filing on time. These people were earning too little to pay any tax at all \u2013 below the \u00a312,570 personal allowance. All the while customer service waiting times, for those trying to call HMRC for advice, rose to a new record last\u00a0year<\/a>. HMRC isn\u2019t properly investigating tax evasion among the richest. They also are allowing\u00a0big gaps<\/a>\u00a0to exist in their enforcement system, allowing tax abuse to proliferate at the highest level. At the same time they are unfairly penalising many at the bottom of the system.

Close Loopholes, Simplify the System<\/strong>
Meanwhile, the National Audit Office\u00a0found<\/a>\u00a0that the costs of administering the tax system are spiraling, with complexity at the core of the issue. HMRC\u2019s costs have risen by around 15% in the period from 2019\/20 and 2024, though tax revenue has increased by roughly the same amount.
What can be done? Closing down tax loopholes would be a good start. They are often a way for the super-rich and wealthy corporations to reduce the amount of tax they owe. Closing tax loopholes would help simplify the tax system, increase government revenue and reduce some of the costs of administration. And this could raise revenue too. Putting an end to just five of the loopholes we\u2019ve investigated\u00a0could raise<\/a>\u00a0more than \u00a37bn a year. Removing ways for the wealthiest to reduce tax bills, alongside properly investigating tax evasion by the super-rich, would also help to rebuild HMRCs reputation as an effective and efficient tax authority.
We can only have a fairer and more just tax system when our government and tax authority gets their priorities right. I hope you will continue supporting our work as we keep fighting for tax justice. Thank you and all the best,

Robert Palmer<\/strong>, Executive Director, Tax Justice


P.S. Our board member, Jean McLean is speaking at an online event organised by the Environmental Funders Network (EFN) called “Narrative & Wealth\u00a0Inequality” discussing wealth inequality, and what we can do about it. Speakers include economist Gary Stevenson and Milly Shotter from Patriotic Millionaires. It\u2019s free and taking place on Thursday 27th February 2025 at 1-2.30pm. Learn more and get tickets \u00a0HERE<\/a>.<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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From: Robert Palmer – Tax Justice UK <mail@taxjustice.uk>Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2025 at 11:40Subject: My last newsletterTo: <peterchallen@gmail.com> Dear Peter,This is my last newsletter to you. Next week \u2013 almost seven years to the day after starting at Tax Justice UK \u2013 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agenda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9042"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9042"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9056,"href":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9042\/revisions\/9056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccmj.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}