Take the Icebreaker tax plan. Invested in by Take That’s Gary Barlow and others, it was ruled by a tribunal to be an improper evasion scheme. But while Barlow paid up and confessed his sins, some Icebreaker investors have successfully argued in one-to-one negotiations with the taxman that it was a bona fide business investment.
So, should the architects of Icebreaker be jailed, or not?
Under the planned new laws, such questions will be argued over by battalions of lawyers for years to come: all paid for, of course, by us taxpayers.
Surely a ban on the secrecy permitted by offshore havens is a far better deterrent than unworkable legislation at home.
