JHA LLP | London Tax Disputes Solicitors & Barristers

The swing of the pendulum: tax avoidance in modern times

30 September 2016

Author: Graham Aaronson KC

Originally printed in Tax Journal on 30 September 2016.

Tax avoidance is now a headline-grabbing and career-threatening subject. But over seventy years ago, the highest court in the land told us that taxpayers are entitled to do anything legal to reduce their tax bill. How we have got to here from there is a journey driven by strong personalities reacting to major economic events, changes in tax rates and what until very recently was an ever growing tax avoidance industry.

Graham Aaronson QC (Joseph Hage Aaronson) presents a personal view of tax avoidance in the UK over the past 100 years, looking at the case law and legislation which developed in the first half century, and the social and economic context in which they evolved.

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