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From the PAC report: Goldman Sachs

In one case, we sought information on the details of a settlement in which an error had been made with the effect that the company concerned did not have to pay interest due on its tax liability. The C&AG told us that this resulted in a loss of up to £8 million in interest forgone. We have since received evidence from a whistleblower that the total value of interest payable in respect of this particular settlement could be as high as £20 million.

Note the very precise wording there.

The admission that £8 million in interest was foregone as a result of the mistake.  The claim by Mba that the case shouls have entailed £20 million in total interest.

The way that paragraph has been constructed (and it is repeated elsewhere) makes you think, hey, they say that £ 8 million wasn\’t paid but the whistleblower says £20 million wasn\’t paid!

No, look more closely at the actual statement. The case involved £20 million in interest. £8 million in interest was not paid. Whatever the truth of the matter, that\’s actually what they are saying there. Norte what they have not said: that £20 million of interest should have been but was not paid.

3 thoughts on “From the PAC report: Goldman Sachs”

  1. Almost. The tax is in fact an unpaid claim. The claim may or may not be legitimate, and so the tax may or may not be actually due, but it is unpaid. Some of is correctly unpaid, some not.

  2. So does that mean that £12m WAS paid?

    Tim adds: The tax outstanding was paid, yes.

    What we do not know is how much interest was paid, if any.

    My speculation is that there was roughly 10 million payable from the time the scheme started to when HMRC closed it. And a further roughly 10 million from when GS started to argue about it to settlement.

    All of the other companies who used the same scheme did not pay interest from start to settlement. Did GS? Did they pay on the time they spent argui9ng in court? Were they let off one or the other? Both? Who knows?

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