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Avoidance or evasion?

14 April 2016 / David Greene
Issue: 7694 / Categories: Opinion , Tax
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David Greene wonders what will flow from the Panama revelations for lawyers?

Many moons ago when I took the Chartered Institute of Taxation exams (never could get my head round VAT) the difference between evasion and avoidance was drummed into you. Strangely, there remains utter confusion over the difference between the two words by people who should be able to differentiate, as each has been called upon to comment upon David Cameron’s financial and fiscal connections with Panama in the past week. As I write, Cameron is standing up in the Commons to defend himself and answer the House’s questions on his affairs. There may be many moral and political questions over his conduct but in law at least he has done nothing wrong.

Canal journey

Home to a one-time errant canoeist, Panama does not otherwise generally feature on the radar of the average Person on the Clapham Omnibus, save to think of the eponymous canal and, perhaps, its recent drug-torn violent history. It’s only 25 years since the US invaded the country to put

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NEWS
The government’s plan to introduce a Single Professional Services Supervisor could erode vital legal-sector expertise, warns Mark Evans, president of the Law Society of England and Wales, in NLJ this week
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Professor Graham Zellick KC argues in NLJ this week that, despite Buckingham Palace’s statement stripping Andrew Mountbatten Windsor of his styles, titles and honours, he remains legally a duke
Writing in NLJ this week, Sophie Ashcroft and Miranda Joseph of Stevens & Bolton dissect the Privy Council’s landmark ruling in Jardine Strategic Ltd v Oasis Investments II Master Fund Ltd (No 2), which abolishes the long-standing 'shareholder rule'
In NLJ this week, Sailesh Mehta and Theo Burges of Red Lion Chambers examine the government’s first-ever 'Afghan leak' super-injunction—used to block reporting of data exposing Afghans who aided UK forces and over 100 British officials. Unlike celebrity privacy cases, this injunction centred on national security. Its use, the authors argue, signals the rise of a vast new body of national security law spanning civil, criminal, and media domains
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