monday it's the only thing between us and tuesday, smash it down

sungod

'ning

office, coffee, i'm sure someone will annoy me

looks very nippy, time for gloves

lincolndave

Morning, very nippy here especially in the wind, having a cuppa just to warm myself up after walking the dog, out on the bike later when the wind drops

sungod

today's gloves not warm enough

as predicted, someone has already annoyed me

time for coffee in the cafe i think

fat daddy

cold ... very cold ...... and thanks to the rain at the weekend, numerous patches of ice on the roads this morning.

Kept forgetting and was leaning the bike right over through turns, then panicking half way through as I realized the ground was damp .. eeeeeeeek

haydenm

Morning, cold today. Weather says it is to rain later with possibly some sleet first, doesn't look like it will be much warmer though which is good. Got a tonne of work left over from last week, new pickup specs are far more interesting...

tlw1

Feck that was a cold commute, half way through I really regretting taking the longer route

Working locally - must remember to cycle back through town and pick my car up after yesterday's excess

Later is probably a walk with the current wife

hopkinb

Dying my hair back to its customary mousey brown colour. Chocolate cakes to taste this morning.

step83

Morning, chilly one today drove in avoiding accidents weekend of very little as I kept having nosebleeds so now feel utter garbage. Still do today but fortifying myself with a fry up, no mushrooms though the heathens.
Rumour has it my local Iceland has boxes of 100 Jaffa cakes in. That's lunch sorted for me.

Wheelspinner

First day at new contract job. I had blissfully forgotten just how awful consultancy-speak is. This contract is scheduled to last 6 weeks, which suddenly feels like an eternity.

Tomorrow I have to go halfway across town in the other direction to collect a computer to use. This is apparently a more useful way to spend my time than actually dealing with the client. Oh well, they're paying me to do it I suppose. An Uber driver to collect it would have been a much cheaper option for them. :roll:

Arrived home to the most delicious fragrance of curried sausages. Mmmmmmmmmmm

veronese68

Morning folks,
Was more than a tad chilly out there this morning, warm gloves were needed but at least I managed to wobble in. Good day yesterday with a longish (by my standards) walk to the tearooms in Richmond Park where I met my folks as my sisters were down and had managed to get the old man out for a little walk with the promise of cake to follow.
Lots of work to do today catching up with stuff from Friday and a couple of big quotes I need to do. Shouldn't really be on here. Maybe I should make a coffee and procrastinate further. Cakes were had as it's someone's birthday, had a third cup of tea made for me to help it down.

pinno

hopkinb wrote:

Dying my hair back to its customary mousey brown colour. Chocolate cakes to taste this morning.

You don't need Grecian 2000 Hoppy, you need Grecian two million (old school joke).

I see Britain's hard workers arrive and almost immediately log on to Bike Radar :roll:

Me going to get some logs for my wood burner me. It's been a while and it always seems to be snowing when I do it. Spooky but then I am going into the Machars badlands.

Laters.

sloppyschleckonds

Pinno wrote:

I see Britain's hard workers arrive and almost immediately log on to Bike Radar :roll:

step83

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

Pinno wrote:

I see Britain's hard workers arrive and almost immediately log on to Bike Radar :roll:

I refute the claim I am a hard worker, I can provide proof to the contrary

Stevo_666

Pinno wrote:

I see Britain's hard workers arrive and almost immediately log on to Bike Radar :roll:

Speak for yourself, spent the whole morning doing a 'Lewis Hamilton' on our tax liabilities before grabbing a sandwich and logging on here

Another cold bike ride here, luckily I went for the wimps option of winter gloves and jacket, which turned out to be the right one. More fiscal fun this afternoon...

Matthewfalle

At work so went to the gym and just been to Edwyn's for a steak sandwich, now about t have some coffee and lunch.

Nice.

May head over to the Panama Papers thread to point out to Rick and everybody else that Rick doesn't have a freakin' scooby about anything at all, let alone the Panama Papers.

Stevo_666

Matthewfalle wrote:

At work so went to the gym and just been to Edwyn's for a steak sandwich, now about t have some coffee and lunch.

Nice.

May head over to the Panama Papers thread to point out to Rick and everybody else that Rick doesn't have a freakin' scooby about anything at all, let alone the Panama Papers.

Yep, time for the 'tax knowledgable tag team' to kick some indignant/clueless butt - I feel like I'm doing an impression of Uma Thurman fighting the Crazy 88's over there

phil485

The only thing keeping me going is knowing I've got to ride home tonight.
45minutes of me time away from office morons


More caffeine needed!!

Matthewfalle

Stevo 666 wrote:

Matthewfalle wrote:

At work so went to the gym and just been to Edwyn's for a steak sandwich, now about t have some coffee and lunch.

Nice.

May head over to the Panama Papers thread to point out to Rick and everybody else that Rick doesn't have a freakin' scooby about anything at all, let alone the Panama Papers.

Yep, time for the 'tax knowledgable tag team' to kick some indignant/clueless butt - I feel like I'm doing an impression of Uma Thurman fighting the Crazy 88's over there

Just having a quick curry so will catch up and head in - we're back in.

Stevo_666

Matthewfalle wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Matthewfalle wrote:

At work so went to the gym and just been to Edwyn's for a steak sandwich, now about t have some coffee and lunch.

Nice.

May head over to the Panama Papers thread to point out to Rick and everybody else that Rick doesn't have a freakin' scooby about anything at all, let alone the Panama Papers.

Yep, time for the 'tax knowledgable tag team' to kick some indignant/clueless butt - I feel like I'm doing an impression of Uma Thurman fighting the Crazy 88's over there

Just having a quick curry so will catch up and head in - we're back in.

Just done a quick stint

Matthewfalle

Stevo 666 wrote:

Matthewfalle wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Matthewfalle wrote:

At work so went to the gym and just been to Edwyn's for a steak sandwich, now about t have some coffee and lunch.

Nice.

May head over to the Panama Papers thread to point out to Rick and everybody else that Rick doesn't have a freakin' scooby about anything at all, let alone the Panama Papers.

Yep, time for the 'tax knowledgable tag team' to kick some indignant/clueless butt - I feel like I'm doing an impression of Uma Thurman fighting the Crazy 88's over there

Just having a quick curry so will catch up and head in - we're back in.

Just done a quick stint

Grazie!

I'm just letting my dinner (pasta and meatballs) settle and will head back in as well.

Matthewfalle

I notice the Ginger Ninja has jumped in

hopkinb

Matthewfalle wrote:

I notice the Ginger Ninja has jumped in

Ah, not really. I work in tax for a bank as you know, but bank tax departments are much more about making sure we comply with the rules these days. We closed a profitable dividend arbitrage/stock borrowing and lending department because of a tax scandal in our home jurisdiction. The transactions we were still doing were fine, but were tainted by some older deals that weren't quite so fine. Even so, Head Office was raided last week by the tax police.

I have no problem with corporates and individuals structuring their business affairs efficiently, as long as there is substance behind what they do.

I am no fan of highly contrived "sham" structures, double dips, tax arbitrage, parking profits where there are no meaningful people functions, misleading tax authorities as to the nature of their activities in a particular jurisdiction.

Anti avoidance laws and international cooperation are increasing massively, I think most of what we are seeing in the press now is legacy stuff. Parking profits behind a brass plate in a tax haven doesn't work any more, investing in some sham scheme doesn't work any more.

However, making sure a business restructure doesn't lead to unforeseen tax liabilities, timing the sale of particular assets, using existing reliefs, setting up real business operations in low tax jurisdictions. These are prudent steps a business can take to minimise their costs, just as locating manufacturing in a low cost area, or negotiating the best price with a supplier is good business practice.

There used to be much bigger grey areas, these are shrinking, and the CCO rules in particular will start to make businesses tighten up their internal controls.

Stevo_666

hopkinb wrote:

I have no problem with corporates and individuals structuring their business affairs efficiently, as long as there is substance behind what they do.

I am no fan of highly contrived "sham" structures, double dips, tax arbitrage, parking profits where there are no meaningful people functions.

The first para is quite a bit of what I do now.

The second para is what is used to a lot of in previous jobs and it was bloody good fun while it lasted

My crowning achievement was probably our Hungarian finance company with a Luxembourg branch to finance our US ops with a hybrid loan treated as debt in the US and a distribution at the other end to avoid UK CFC. I had many a good night out in Budapest as a director of the company, all funded by those lovely people at the IRS - 35% deduction in the US, most of it taxed at 2% in Lux (thank you Mr. Juncker) and the remaining 5% in Hungary at about 19%. [Goes misty eyed remembering the good old days] :twisted: