David Heaton resigned as an adviser to HMRC on tax avoidance last week after it emerged that he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing – despite having been hired precisely because he was a wolf.
Speaking two months ago at a conference in London, for which tickets cost up to £1,000, Heaton had advised employers on how to avoid tax on bonuses by exploiting maternity pay, so tax paid was 8.4 per cent compared to the initial 41.8 per cent.
When the scandal broke and his former role was revealed by a BBC/Private Eye investigation, the Treasury welcomed his resignation. Ministers and Treasury spokespeople have put across how shocked – shocked! – they are that someone they retained for his knowledge of tax avoidance turned out to have been advocating, um, tax avoidance.
Now, it is not necessarily right that businesses try to avoid tax, but they do. Hundreds of highly-paid individuals are employed by companies to keep profits from the taxman. They are internally lauded for this, as you would expect.
But it is exactly these people the government should be using to fight back against such inexcusable abuses of the tax system. Forcing them out following shameful revelations highlights a margin of morals but doesn’t balance the books.
Perhaps worst of all, a company Heaton has worked for gives seminars entitled “50 Shades of Tax”, aimed at “anyone who loves tax, and anyone who doesn’t but still pays it!” There is something tragic in the comedy. Not only do people avoid tax with base swindling schemes but people make money in advising others to do so.
Perhaps the Treasury should take note and see crushing tax avoidance as business: invest in advisers, secure profit, reinvest. They can start by getting poachers such as David Heaton to repay their social debts by turning gamekeeper.
This piece first appeared on Spear’s Magazine.
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