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Crashing the tax avoidance party: "depart...before we set the dogs on you...trespassing scum"
Last Thursday night, a few friends and I crashed the gala dinner of a tax avoidance conference in Oxford. Run by the aptly named Key Haven Publications, the "tax planning" conference brings together accountants for the mega rich and multinational corporations to discuss, very explicitly, how to get away with paying as little tax as possible.
Sessions at the conference promise advice on offshore tax planning and dealing with the "threat" of anti-avoidance legislation. But the really outrageous event on the conference itinerary was the black-tie dinner in the great hall of New College, Oxford, where the after-dinner speaker was Dave Hartnett, former head of HMRC, who has just retired after revelations that his organisation made deals with Vodafone, Goldman Sachs and many other companies, resulting in billions off their tax bills. We decided to crash the party.
As Britain's top taxman, Hartnett's job was to make people pay their fair share. But he personally signed off on sweetheart deals with big corporations. Private Eye magazine has been doggedly reporting the tawdry details of his notorious £6bn deal with Vodafone for more than two years now. Earlier this year, Osita Mba, a whistleblower from HMRC, spilt the beans on Hartnett's deal with Goldman Sachs, which let the bank off £10m in tax on bankers' bonuses. UK Uncut has spent the last year or two occupying shops, crashing conferences and suing the government in protest at the deals. And the public accounts committee made front-page news when it slammed Hartnett for his lack of "candour" over the controversial deals. It's no surprise he eventually decided to resign.
...
Unfortunately, his nice evening quickly took a turn for the worst. Just a few minutes into his speech, the grand door to the hall opened and we walked in. We were dolled up in black tie, and had knocked up some Vodafone and Goldman Sachs name badges. We interrupted Hartnett's speech and presented him with the Lifetime Achievement Award for Services to Corporate Tax Avoidance, also known as the Golden Handshake. Hilariously, the audience applauded enthusiastically. The video we shot shows Hartnett looking as if he wants the ground to swallow him up. We were soon dragged from the room by a tax barrister who called us "trespassing scum" and "intruders".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/24/tax-avoidance-party-hmrc-dave-hartnett
Sessions at the conference promise advice on offshore tax planning and dealing with the "threat" of anti-avoidance legislation. But the really outrageous event on the conference itinerary was the black-tie dinner in the great hall of New College, Oxford, where the after-dinner speaker was Dave Hartnett, former head of HMRC, who has just retired after revelations that his organisation made deals with Vodafone, Goldman Sachs and many other companies, resulting in billions off their tax bills. We decided to crash the party.
As Britain's top taxman, Hartnett's job was to make people pay their fair share. But he personally signed off on sweetheart deals with big corporations. Private Eye magazine has been doggedly reporting the tawdry details of his notorious £6bn deal with Vodafone for more than two years now. Earlier this year, Osita Mba, a whistleblower from HMRC, spilt the beans on Hartnett's deal with Goldman Sachs, which let the bank off £10m in tax on bankers' bonuses. UK Uncut has spent the last year or two occupying shops, crashing conferences and suing the government in protest at the deals. And the public accounts committee made front-page news when it slammed Hartnett for his lack of "candour" over the controversial deals. It's no surprise he eventually decided to resign.
...
Unfortunately, his nice evening quickly took a turn for the worst. Just a few minutes into his speech, the grand door to the hall opened and we walked in. We were dolled up in black tie, and had knocked up some Vodafone and Goldman Sachs name badges. We interrupted Hartnett's speech and presented him with the Lifetime Achievement Award for Services to Corporate Tax Avoidance, also known as the Golden Handshake. Hilariously, the audience applauded enthusiastically. The video we shot shows Hartnett looking as if he wants the ground to swallow him up. We were soon dragged from the room by a tax barrister who called us "trespassing scum" and "intruders".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/24/tax-avoidance-party-hmrc-dave-hartnett
Very well done. They really do think it's a genuine award at first, and slowly start to realise something is up; the guy who throws them out is the most pompous arse I think I've ever seen. I hope he becomes infamous.
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