A rabbi, a priest and the secretary-general of the OECD walk into a bar... Not heard that one before? Read on. Last Wednesday, January 2nd, as the 20th Knesset breathed its last before flatlining in the run-up to a General Election, the Finance Committee approved regulations paving the way for the introduction of the international…
Before our very eyes!
When it comes to aphorisms, 'Oldie but Goodie' is high on my list of suspect examples. Generally quoted by the generation above mine to fill the void of laughter following a particularly hackneyed joke, it only rolls happily off the tongue when served with lashings of irony. Such was my reaction to a ruling published…
It’s just not cricket
Last month's news from India, that tax residency certificates would no longer be a must for foreigners claiming treaty benefits, will come as a welcome relief to the finance departments of organizations doing business with that great country. Obtaining certificates of residence can be a pain in the neck, especially when they are needed quickly.…
The taxman takes his cut
Initially dubbed 'the war to end all wars', the act of carnage that ended a hundred years ago this week had to later suffer the ignominy of having 'First' stuck at the front of its name. While recognizing the sacrifice of the combatants and the tragedy of 20 million dead, subsequent generations have suggested the…
Who wants to live forever?
There was a time, not long ago, when the ideal higher education of a tax specialist was a combination of law and accounting. With the gradual death by asphyxiation of income tax planning, the ambitious young prospective practitioner might add a third arrow to his bow - doctor of medicine. Many would argue that, despite frustrating…
Yes, Minister
Looking confused next to the overhead locker of my assigned Business Class seat on a British Airways flight from Heathrow to New York last year, I was approached by a helpful flight attendant (if that is what stewardesses are called these days) who offered assistance. Pointing to the little picture indicating which mini-compartment was 12A,…
Some like it hot
Political fossil Al Gore’s sequel to his Oscar winning environmental documentary ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ – ‘An Inconvenient Sequel’ – may have underwhelmed at the box office this month, but it provided a timely counterweight to President Donald Trump’s announcement some weeks earlier that the United States was pulling out of the Paris Agreement. Despite the…
Was the Battle of Europe lost on the playing fields of Eton?
'History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.' That aphorism, attributed to Mark Twain, has been much on my mind lately. Anybody wanting to get inside the minds of the wrong-headed majority that tragically voted the UK out of the EU (and probably lit a fuse to both those abbreviations) could do worse than read one…
Let slip the dogs of war
I have just emerged from a fascinating two-day conference in rain-soaked Lisbon. Despite the headline title, the real theme was inevitably the prospects for the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project of the OECD, the rump of which is due to be approved by the G20 shortly. The public proclamations on BEPS have displayed populist triumphalism…
Cogito ergo sum
Arguably, the greatest contribution to society of a liberal education is perspective. 'Dah da dah da dah. DISCUSS' was the way it went when I was at school, as opposed to the 'A, B, C, D, E. Tick one' of the modern era. Today, July 14, is only significant to the vast majority of the…
Tax Break 