Treasury in new 'u-turn'

If Alistair Darling is to signal a u-turn on the foreign profits rules, he's going to have to do better than this:

Clearly, we want to look at how these reforms might affect individual sectors, including those dealing with intellectual property. We are committed to a revenue-neutral package that enhances competitiveness while protecting UK tax revenues.

That's a 'Treasury source' quoted by The Times.

Alistair Darling, stress reliever

This is very good. Mark Hoban, the shadow parliamentary secretary to the Treasury, has dug out the Treasury's figures for staff illness caused by stress.

It shows an intriguing trend.

Mike Devereux on offshore profits

I think Mike Devereux of the Oxford Centre for Business Taxation has posed the policy dilemma on the foreign profits move quite well.

In last week's Economist, he says: 'The more successful tax collectors are in preventing firms from shifting profit out of Britain, the more they are likely to encourage firms to leave the country.'

That just about sums up the futility of the government's policy.

The rise and rise of the tax director

I thought Joel Walters' interview in the CIOT/ATT journal Tax Adviser was interesting not only for what he said, but also for the fact that it was him saying it.

Walters is, for those who don't know, the group head of tax at Vodafone, and he makes the point that he thinks there is not as much 'tax avoidance' going on, there just seems to be because where disagreements between companies and HMRC do arise, they involve huge sums of money.

MPs to investigate tax havens

The Treasury Select Committee's announcement that it is looking into tax havens looks significant. Will this up the pressure on small offshore centres, I wonder?

Whether or not it does - and I'm sure we'll see plenty of discussion of the move over the next 24 hours - here are the full list of questions the committee are interested in.

Will Tories drop taxation of foreign profits?

The Tories have been quick off the draw in suggesting that they might drop the taxation of foreign profits for companies, the issue that is driving companies like Shire and United Business Media abroad.

George Osborne was speaking to the British Chambers of Commerce in Liverpool about it today, and I've finally got hold of the full speech.

Can Tony Blair count?

The story going round about 'what Gordon told Tony'  about the 10p tax rate beggars belief. We are asked to believe that Gordon, quizzed by Tony, said only 25,000 people would be affected in advance of delivering the Budget speech last year.

To which the only real response is: why on earth did Tony Blair believe him? 25,000 people? Really? Just how bad is the former prime minister's mental arithmetic?

Did the Treasury tip off the Revenue?

An extraordinary suggestion appeared in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday.

In an article on companies being disgruntled with the UK taxman, an (unnamed) private equity figure suggests that after going to the Treasury to talk about sensitive tax issues, he/she and others were investigated by the Revenue.

'Two or three' companies to follow Shire offshore

Shire's decision to go offshore is certainly exercising a few minds. I'm told by Bill Dodwell of Deloitte that a further 'two or three' companies are set to announce similar moves 'in the next month or two'.

Perhaps the first thing to note is that this is not about UK tax rates. If you look at the company's annual report (pdf, p.80) for the year ending December 2006, it notes a UK tax credit, rather than charge, of $44m (£22m).

Who will win the Guardian/Tesco battle?

Who is going to be the winner in the Guardian/Tesco battle? Well, actually, I am not going to answer that question - at least not directly. I'm not that silly.

The question is curious because there are differing views out there as to how the whole battle will play out.