Treasury select committee’s scrutiny will raise political temperature on multinationals’ tax bills An influential group of MPs is to investigate corporate tax avoidance as the clamour grows for action on companies seen as paying less than their fair share. The inquiry, by the Treasury select committee, will raise the political temperature around the issue – already under scrutiny after questions over the tax bills of multinationals such as Vodafone and Barclays – and senior executives face the prospect of explaining their companies’ tax structures to the committee. George Mudie, the Labour MP for Leeds East and the chairman of the Commons Treasury sub-committee, told the Guardian that there was growing public interest. “When people see their standards of living fall and are paying their tax, and see huge salaries and questions over tax avoidance, then quite rightly they are interested in the issue,” he said. Mudie said the committee had not decided whether or not the full committee would consider the issue, or just the sub-committee: “I will be seeking to take the sub-committee into it unless the chairman [Conservative MP Andrew Tyrie] says we will do it in the full committee.” It would be May before the committee could consider the issue in detail, Mudie said, given pressures over the budget and the Easter break. Tax avoidance has been thrust into the spotlight recently by campaigners such as those from UK Uncut, alleging that multinationals such as Vodafone and individuals such as Arcadia’s chief, Sir Philip Green, have avoided huge sums in tax through complicated structures often based offshore. Critics allege that HM Revenue & Customs let Vodafone off a £6bn tax bill on profits funnelled through a Luxembourg subsidiary, a claim denied by the tax agency. Green’s shops have been the subject of sit-ins by UK Uncut, unhappy about a £1.2bn dividend Green paid out of retail group Arcadia in 2005 to a family trust, which campaigners say was in reality his income and should have been taxed as such. Barclays has faced criticism and direct action too, not least after disclosing that it paid £113m in UK corporation tax in 2009 after making profits globally of almost £12bn. Tax advisers say they detect no particular weakening of the rules on tax avoidance under the coalition. The government is considering plans to introduce a general anti-avoidance rule, and last week’s budget contained a range of new measures to target the issue. Bill Dodwell of Deloitte said: “There’s a considerable amount out there on tax avoidance already. I’m not sure what the committee would add.” But the National Audit Office and another powerful group of MPs, the public accounts committee, are already looking at the procedures which led to the government’s £1.25bn deal with Vodafone. The investigation comes as pharmaceuticals group AstraZeneca said the UK and US had agreed on a settlement over the issue of where its profits should be declared, an agreement which will cost the group $1.1bn (£689m). Under the deal, AstraZeneca will pay substantially less than it had budgeted for. This means the company can unlock some of its outstanding tax provisions, increasing its earnings this year by $500m and raising its profit targets by almost 7%. Its effective tax rate will also be slashed from 27% to 21%. The deal means AstraZeneca will receive tax refunds in several other countries, as profits are booked in the US instead. A spokeswoman for the company confirmed that HMRC will hand back an undisclosed tax payment to be passed on to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). She would not say how much this would be, but insisted it was less than the headline figure of $1.1bn. “Our UK total tax contribution will be still be substantial in 2011, and we continue to be one of the biggest payers of UK business taxes in the FTSE 100,” she said. Pharmaceuticals companies have been repeatedly caught up in transfer pricing disputes. Drugs companies would rather profits from major drugs could be booked in lower-tax jurisdictions, where the drugs are often manufactured, while higher-tax countries where the drugs were developed and marketed argue for a share of the taxable profits. In 2006 GlaxoSmithKline settled a transfer pricing dispute with the IRS, costing it $3.4bn, while AstraZeneca itself settled a dispute on the same issue with the UK last year for £505m. Tax avoidance Corporate governance Vodafone Barclays Sir Philip Green AstraZeneca Tax and spending UK Uncut Graeme Wearden Alex Hawkes guardian.co.uk
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Millions of emails from 2005 and 2006 are likely to include those by Andy Coulson and three former editors implicated in affair The News of the World has revealed that its computers have retained an archive of potentially damning emails, which hitherto it had claimed had been lost. The millions of emails, amounting to half a terabyte of data, could expose executives and reporters involved in hacking the voicemail of public figures, including former deputy prime minister John Prescott, actor Sienna Miller, and former culture secretary Tessa Jowell. The archived data is likely to include email exchanges between the most senior executives, including former editor Andy Coulson, who resigned as David Cameron’s media adviser in January, as well as three former news editors – Ian Edmondson, Greg Miskiw, and Neville Thurlbeck – implicated in the affair by paperwork seized from Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who was on the News of the World’s books. Edmondson was sacked in January. Miskiw and Thurlbeck were interviewed by police last autumn. No charge has been brought against any of them. Coulson and the three former news editors have all denied all involvement in criminal activity. MPs on the home affairs select committee are likely on Tuesday to ask about the emails to John Yates, acting deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan police, when they question him over allegations he misled parliament in evidence he gave about the number of hacking victims originally identified by Scotland Yard. Yates told the committee six months ago the Met had only identified “10 to 12″ individuals in a 2006 inquiry because the Crown Prosecution Service advised it to adopt a narrow legal definition of what constituted an offence. The Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, has said that prosecuting counsel never adopted this narrow definition. Several News of the World journalists have since been linked with phone hacking after victims began legal battles, raising questions about why Scotland Yard failed to conduct a more comprehensive inquiry. Only one reporter, former royal editor Clive Goodman, was convicted of a crime along with Mulcaire. Both men were sentenced to jail terms in January 2007. No other reporters or executives were questioned by the initial police investigation and only Goodman’s computer was seized. Only a series of high court cases brought by Sienna Miller and others have forced the Met to make available the material seized in a 2006 raid on Mulcaire’s home, including his handwritten notes. But the disclosure of internal emails from 2005 and 2006, when Mulcaire was at his most active, could reveal the full extent of phone-hacking at the paper and the identities of those involved. In a ruling on Friday, a high court judge ordered the News of the World to make them available to the growing list of people suing the paper. Justice Geoffrey Vos, in charge of the hacking cases, ordered “rolling disclosure” to all claimants on Friday; hundreds of thousands of emails will now be handed over to alleged victims. Parts of the first tranche, which contains up to 8,000 emails, will be passed to Sienna Miller’s legal team in April. Lawyers acting for Sky Andrew, the football agent who is also suing the paper, will then receive all the News of the World emails in which Andrew is mentioned days later. News Group told the high court it is close to completing a search through archived emails it claimed had been lost when transferred to India by its IT provider; its lawyers formally apologised to the court for previous claims the archive was not available. David Sherborne, for Sienna Miller, added that it remained ‘mysterious’ that the editor of the Scottish edition of the News of the World, Bob Bird, had given evidence on oath at the trial of Tommy Sheridan last year that the email archive had been lost on the way to India. News Group also admitted a work computer used by Edmondson had been destroyed before Christmas. They agreed to provide detailed information about its destruction to computer specialists advising Sienna Miller. Computers used by other News of the World journalists have also been replaced or disposed of, but News Group’s lawyer, Anthony Hudson QC, said the data they contained had been copied and retained. Sherborne told the high court on Friday that evidence of “a scheme” between News Group and Mulcaire to hack into Miller’s mobile phone had been recovered by the Met during the raid on his home. It included an agreement to provide “daily transcripts” to the paper and monitor the activities of the actor’s friends and associates, Sherborne said. Further disclosures have been ordered by Vos. They include a copy of an email sent to Mulcaire asking him to target a “wish list” of 17 footballers. News International maintains it will take tough action against any employee who is found guilty of wrongdoing. News of the World Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers News International James Robinson guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Millions of emails from 2005 and 2006 are likely to include those by Andy Coulson and three former editors implicated in affair The News of the World has revealed that its computers have retained an archive of potentially damning emails, which hitherto it had claimed had been lost. The millions of emails, amounting to half a terabyte of data, could expose executives and reporters involved in hacking the voicemail of public figures, including former deputy prime minister John Prescott, actor Sienna Miller, and former culture secretary Tessa Jowell. The archived data is likely to include email exchanges between the most senior executives, including former editor Andy Coulson, who resigned as David Cameron’s media adviser in January, as well as three former news editors – Ian Edmondson, Greg Miskiw, and Neville Thurlbeck – implicated in the affair by paperwork seized from Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who was on the News of the World’s books. Edmondson was sacked in January. Miskiw and Thurlbeck were interviewed by police last autumn. No charge has been brought against any of them. Coulson and the three former news editors have all denied all involvement in criminal activity. MPs on the home affairs select committee are likely on Tuesday to ask about the emails to John Yates, acting deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan police, when they question him over allegations he misled parliament in evidence he gave about the number of hacking victims originally identified by Scotland Yard. Yates told the committee six months ago the Met had only identified “10 to 12″ individuals in a 2006 inquiry because the Crown Prosecution Service advised it to adopt a narrow legal definition of what constituted an offence. The Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, has said that prosecuting counsel never adopted this narrow definition. Several News of the World journalists have since been linked with phone hacking after victims began legal battles, raising questions about why Scotland Yard failed to conduct a more comprehensive inquiry. Only one reporter, former royal editor Clive Goodman, was convicted of a crime along with Mulcaire. Both men were sentenced to jail terms in January 2007. No other reporters or executives were questioned by the initial police investigation and only Goodman’s computer was seized. Only a series of high court cases brought by Sienna Miller and others have forced the Met to make available the material seized in a 2006 raid on Mulcaire’s home, including his handwritten notes. But the disclosure of internal emails from 2005 and 2006, when Mulcaire was at his most active, could reveal the full extent of phone-hacking at the paper and the identities of those involved. In a ruling on Friday, a high court judge ordered the News of the World to make them available to the growing list of people suing the paper. Justice Geoffrey Vos, in charge of the hacking cases, ordered “rolling disclosure” to all claimants on Friday; hundreds of thousands of emails will now be handed over to alleged victims. Parts of the first tranche, which contains up to 8,000 emails, will be passed to Sienna Miller’s legal team in April. Lawyers acting for Sky Andrew, the football agent who is also suing the paper, will then receive all the News of the World emails in which Andrew is mentioned days later. News Group told the high court it is close to completing a search through archived emails it claimed had been lost when transferred to India by its IT provider; its lawyers formally apologised to the court for previous claims the archive was not available. David Sherborne, for Sienna Miller, added that it remained ‘mysterious’ that the editor of the Scottish edition of the News of the World, Bob Bird, had given evidence on oath at the trial of Tommy Sheridan last year that the email archive had been lost on the way to India. News Group also admitted a work computer used by Edmondson had been destroyed before Christmas. They agreed to provide detailed information about its destruction to computer specialists advising Sienna Miller. Computers used by other News of the World journalists have also been replaced or disposed of, but News Group’s lawyer, Anthony Hudson QC, said the data they contained had been copied and retained. Sherborne told the high court on Friday that evidence of “a scheme” between News Group and Mulcaire to hack into Miller’s mobile phone had been recovered by the Met during the raid on his home. It included an agreement to provide “daily transcripts” to the paper and monitor the activities of the actor’s friends and associates, Sherborne said. Further disclosures have been ordered by Vos. They include a copy of an email sent to Mulcaire asking him to target a “wish list” of 17 footballers. News International maintains it will take tough action against any employee who is found guilty of wrongdoing. News of the World Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers News International James Robinson guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …They call it “Facebook depression,” and whether it’s a new phenomenon or a new twist on an old problem, researchers say it’s a real and growing issue for teens. With its much-touted friends’ tallies and constant photos and status updates highlighting all the great times everyone else is having, Facebook…
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Leaked memo reveals Warwickshire police authority will take up to 150 officers off the streets Serving police officers are being taken out of frontline roles and moved to cover the “back-office” functions of civilian staff who have been made redundant, according to leaked memos which show the perverse side-effects of budget cuts. The decision by Warwickshire police authority – one of the smaller forces in England and Wales with 1,800 officers and staff – to draft up to 150 frontline officers into civilian desk jobs is expected to be followed by other forces grappling with a 20% cut in their Whitehall funding. Police officers are Crown-appointed warrant holders and cannot be made redundant. They can only be “compulsorily retired” through an obscure regulation after more than 30 years’ service, but civilian support staff do not enjoy such job security. The leak comes as a second survey of police authority intentions carried out by Labour confirms that the police are heading for 27,500 job losses, including 12,500 police officers, over the next four years. Ministers have vowed to protect frontline policing from the impact of the cuts and a report by Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary to be published on Wednesday is expected to clear up the confusion over where the “frontline” can be drawn in the battle against crime. The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the Warwickshire situation showed that chief constables had been put in an impossible position: “It is now clear that when there is not the staff to help plan, co-ordinate or forensically investigate the fight against crime, then police officers will have to be taken off the streets to do this work. “The government needs to take responsibility and recognise that the loss of 12,500 police officers and 15,000 police staff across the country is taking risks with public safety and the progress on crime and antisocial behaviour that was made over the last decade.” The decision by Warwickshire to redeploy frontline officers to roles such as staffing inquiry offices and control rooms and conducting routine visits to crime scenes was disclosed in a leaked memo by Richard Elkin, the force’s human resources director. He has written to all 860 back-office staff inviting those with more than two years’ service to apply for voluntary redundancy: “Whilst the force manages the required reductions in the number of police officers, it has been agreed that some will be temporarily posted into police staff posts which are currently vacant, or which will become vacant following voluntary redundancy,” says the memo. The Warwickshire force faces losing 450 jobs out of its 1,800 strength to find savings of £23m in its £100m budget by 2015. The home secretary, Theresa May, and the police minister, Nick Herbert, have repeatedly said it is possible for savings to be found through cutting bureaucracy and back-office functions without hitting the frontline. Ian Francis, chairman of Warwickshire police authority, has said that there are too many police officers in the county force for the new model of policing which is being implemented. “We don’t like it, they [Warwickshire police federation] don’t like it, I don’t think the public like it, but at the end of the day we have no option,” Francis has said. Francis has predicted that other forces are also likely to draft frontline officers into support roles: “The simple matter is yes, we are going to lose policemen from the front line.” Simon Reed, vice-chairman of the Police Federation, said Warwickshire’s example would be followed by other forces: “What is happening in Warwickshire will happen elsewhere simply because of the sheer amount of money being cut from budgets. “When we lose staff in inquiry offices, control rooms or going to scenes of crime then this will happen.” Reed said the cuts would reverse a 10- year process of getting uniformed officers back into mainstream police roles: “It is a question of teamwork. We all depend on each other. The frontline depends on the back-office function.” But a Home Office spokeswoman insisted savings could be achieved without cutting the frontline. “We believe that police forces can make the necessary savings while protecting frontline services and prioritising the visibility and availability of policing,” she said. “Forces must focus on driving out wasteful spending, and increasing efficiency in the back-office. The effectiveness of a police force does not depend primarily on the number of staff it has, but rather on the way they are deployed.” Police Public sector cuts Public services policy Public finance Alan Travis guardian.co.uk
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Rome is negotiating an African haven for the Libyan leader as international pressure mounts on him to go Efforts appear to be under way to offer Muammar Gaddafi a way of escape from Libya, with Italy saying it is trying to organise an African haven for him, and the US signalling it will not try to stop the dictator from fleeing. The move came as diplomatic and military pressure on Gaddafi mounts as Britain tries to assemble a global consensus demanding he surrender power while intensifying air strikes against his forces. Britain will be hosting an international conference including the UN, Arab states, the African Union, and more than 40 foreign ministers, focused on coordinating assistance in the face of a possible humanitarian disaster, and building a unified international front in condemnation of the Gaddafi regime and in support of a Nato-led military action in Libya. On the eve of the London conference, Italy offered to broker a ceasefire deal in Libya, involving asylum for Gaddafi in an African country. “Gaddafi must understand that it would be an act of courage to say: ‘I understand that I have to go’,” said the Italian foreign minister, Franco Frattini. “We hope that the African Union can find a valid proposal.” A senior American official signalled that a solution in which Gaddafi flee to a country beyond the reach of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is investigating war crimes charges against him, would be acceptable to Washington, pointing out that Barack Obama had repeatedly called on Gaddafi to leave. “I can’t say I know of active efforts to find him a place to go, but I would not say it has been ruled out,” the official said. “The ICC has said it will ready to pursue the case, but there are also the rules of the ICC,” he added, pointing out that some countries do not recognise the court’s jurisdiction. British officials said they would rather see Gaddafi face trial, but if his escape was the price of a peaceful settlement they would be able to live with that. David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy tried to ratchet up the pressure on Gaddafi, issuing a joint statement on the eve of the conference declaring his era over, and indicating that his lieutenants might escape prosecution if they abandoned him immediately. “We call on all his followers to leave him before it is too late,” they said. Nato officially announced it was taking over control of the air strikes campaign on Sunday, but the handover of command from the US will not happen for a few days, alliance officials said. Meanwhile, with Gaddafi forces and rebels squared for a battle around Gaddafi’s birthplace of Sirte, British planes taking part in the coalition that has been conducting the campaign for the past 10 days, stepped up their bombardment. RAF Tornados hit 22 tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery pieces over the weekend, the Ministry of Defence said. In the early hours of Monday, they struck ammunition bunkers near Subha in southern Libya, according to the Major General John Lorimer, the MoD’s chief military spokesman. This is significantly more weapons than the Tornados fired over the first week of air strikes. Defence officials say the higher tempo is the result of more intelligence surveillance and assessments from reconnaissance aircraft. But British defence officials made clear they expect more restrictive targeting rules when their planes come under the command of a Canadian Nato general, Charles Bouchard, possibly by Thursday. Bouchard said that the transition would take a few days and it is a complex operation. Discord over the air strikes threatens to undermine the consensus the UK will attempt to construct at the Lancaster House conference. Russia denounced the air campaign, arguing it violated UN security council resolution 1973, passed earlier this month, which permitted “all necessary measures” to be used to protect civilians. The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said: “We consider that intervention by the coalition in what is essentially an internal civil war is not sanctioned by the UN security council resolution.” Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was also critical of the air campaign in a Guardian interview on Monday, and in a symbolic blow to the London conference, it emerged that Amr Moussa, the secretary general of the Arab League – whose support for military action was deemed crucial by Washington and its allies – would not be attending, sending a deputy instead. The joint statement issued by Cameron and the French president was intended in part to heal a rift which opened up in recent days between the countries over the command of the air campaign and France’s recognition of the Benghazi-based National Libyan Council. The rebels are not invited to the conference, but William Hague is expected to meet one of their leaders, Mahmoud Jibril. The shadow defence secretary, Jim Murphy, will warn today that Britain should be careful about siding with the rebels. Speaking at the launch of a review Labour’s defence policy, Murphy will say: “The bravery of the Libyan opposition is not in doubt. What is unclear is the motives of some, other than the removal of Gaddafi. As the opposition move westwards across Libya it is crucial that we better understand who they are and their wider ambitions.” Muammar Gaddafi Nato Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Libya Julian Borger Richard Norton-Taylor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …With the threat of a government shutdown less than two weeks away, all eyes are on the budget. The White House and congressional Democrats are working on a proposal to cut another $20 billion in spending, insiders tell the Wall Street Journal . It’s the biggest cut the administration and Democratic…
Continue reading …Yemen’s president has been waffling on whether, and when, to resign—and yesterday, he scrapped his most recent offer. A week ago, President Ali Abdullah Saleh offered to step down by the end of the year, but his opponents quickly rejected that offer. Yesterday, Saleh formally withdrew it after a…
Continue reading …A Northern California man who went outside to retrieve a newspaper from his driveway yesterday morning was injured when a device hidden inside the paper exploded, authorities said. The blast forced the evacuation of about 50 surrounding homes in Vacaville, which is located between San Francisco and Sacramento. It wasn’t…
Continue reading …Two journalist went missing in Syria Saturday night as they planned to head back into Lebanon. The Beirut-based producer and cameraman worked for Reuters television and traveled to Syria Thursday to cover the ongoing protests. A taxi was to pick them up at the border, but they were last heard…
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