UK Tax Crackdown to Target Middle Class

Middle-class professionals are to be targeted in a new crackdown on tax evasion promised by the chief prosecutor of England and Wales.

The Crown Prosecution Service will dramatically ramp up the number of tax evasion cases it takes on – with a view to prosecution – over the next two years, Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, told the Financial Times. The CPS will increase five fold the number of tax files it handles, to 1,500 a year by 2014-15.

This compares with 200 tax convictions the CPS secured in 2010 – its current conviction rate for tax cases stands at 86 percent.

Tax consultants who push dishonest avoidance schemes – and the professionals who invest in them – are central targets in the strategy.

"There have been some cases involving lawyers, some involving tax consultants, and plumbers," Mr Starmer said in an interview. "Within the ramped-up volume, it's intended that we will select cases to send a clear message as to the breadth of our coverage." Read more >>

Why No Prosecutions on Wall Street?

In the wake of the financial disaster in 2008, which is still unfolding in case you haven’t noticed, federal prosecutions of financial crimes are at a 20 year low. That is a remarkable stat.

Could the fact that financial firms dumped piles of $100 bills on Obama’s head in 2008 have anything to do with the lack of prosecutions? No way. Attorney General Eric Holder says simply that though Wall Street may have acted stupidly, he just can’t seem to find any fraud.


And that all the big banks are clients of Holder’s law firm—a law firm that at least partially specializes in financial crime defense?  That has nothing to do with the lack of prosecutions either. There are just too many pot dispensaries in California to bust, and Mexican drug lords to arm, for the American people to expect the enforcement of financial crimes from their attorney general. More...