From the autumn statement:
First
PS: Fair enough, I took that last one a little out of context … but nevertheless, comparison when it suits, refusal to compare when it doesn’t. Can’t say I’m over-excited by the proposed employment law changes.
IP tax highlights (more to follow when I’m back from Chicago and have time to see the detail):
Poking around in Hansard can produce some interesting notes at times. On 4th May 2011, Chuka Umunna (MP for Streatham, Labour) asked the Secretary of State for some information on First Tier Tax Tribunal statistics. Jonathan Djanogly (MP for Huntingdon, Cons.; Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (HM Courts Service and Legal Aid)) came up with the following for tax appeals received – figures updated with information from the Tribunals Statistics document for the year ended 31 March 2011:
In addition to the patent box paper, the Treasury also published the next round of R&D consultation – this is rather more a summary of responses to the last consultation than new information.
In summary:
The Government is looking for specific responses (by 2 September 2011) on:
The Treasury has published (a few days later than originally advertised) the next round of consultation on the patent box (pdf).
In summary:
Responses to the consultation are requested by 2 September 2011.
Bitcoins have suddenly been the subject of flurry of articles in places like the New Scientist (probably because a Swedish IT entrepreneur, Rickard Falkvinge, has announced that he’s putting his money into Bitcoins), with some more hysterical commentators declaring that Bitcoins are a danger to governments because they “can’t be taxed”. I thought I’d add this article to the flurry, to examine that hypothesis.
In summary, governments don’t generally care what format your wealth change is in; they will want the tax paid in their local currency, but are quite happy to let you earn it in anything you like – including Linden dollars, for example (to take a mild blast from the past). You need to declare it on your tax return (translated to local currency) when it increases your wealth; whether or not the Government can easily find out about it is irrelevant to a taxpayer’s obligations under law. To be pedantic (no doubt a first for a tax lawyer), the hysteria also misses the point that currency itself is not generally taxed (except in the case of collectible coins, for example) – tax is based on changes in wealth, which are usually measurable in currency of one format or another.
The main tax question is: when does a virtual currency increase your wealth for tax purposes?
HMRC have published the minutes of the most recent R&D consultative commitee meeting on April 4th (pdf).
Tom Watson MP (Labour) is trying to re-start the debate on tax credits for the UK games industry with an Early Day Motion (EDM - Early day motion 1781), calling for improvements to R&D tax credits, particularly an extension for the tax break to include expenditure on premises and the costs of applying for IP protection and design. The EDM is clearly prompted by Tiga, the UK games industry trade association, but the extension requested appears general rather than specific to the games industry.
An Early Day Motion is mostly chasing publicity – it has no real prospect of debate in Parliament – so don’t expect to see anything change in the Finance Bill. At the time of writing the EDM had attracted a grand total of 4 signatures, including that of Watson, but they are at least cross-party.