'Ain't No Such Thing'

No sooner had I read one interesting article in Private Eye - on the evidence given by the UK's 'Big Four' accountancy firms to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee - than I come across another fascinating piece which is reproduced below.

HP Sauce

"If MPs on the public accounts committee feel so strongly that the 'Big Four' accountancy firms haven't behaved in the national interest, why don't they tell their own party grandees to stop cosying up to them?

Ed Balls declares in the Commons register of interest that he has received advice worth £88,000 from PwC, while shadow business secretary Chuka Umanna  has enjoyed £20,700 of PwC's largesse. The Tories and Lib Dems were no different in opposition: as shadow chancellor George Osborne took £62,500 worth of free advice from KPMG and £60,000 from Deloitte, while Vince Cable was happy to take £78,700 from PwC before entering government.

And some people wonder why ministers have been so dilatory at tackling tax avoidance."

Now you could take the view that they're all at it - so they all kind of cancel each other out - what's the big deal?

Well the big deal is that organised tax avoidance has been going on for years under successive governments - and the fact that such senior figures in politics have cosy relationships with these big accountancy firms sends out all the wrong messages. 

And as everyone knows in the business world - there ain't no such thing as a 'free lunch'.