UK Lib Dems seek to introduce law to punish tax advisers

The UK could impose new legislation treating firms giving advice on how to avoid tax similarly to the tax dodgers themselves if a plan by the Liberal Democrats sees the light of day. The party, part of the current coalition government, will introduce a new offence of 'corporate failure to avoid preventing an economic crime' in the next few weeks or, if there is not enough time, after the May elections should it form part of the new government. Treasury minister Danny Alexander said on the Andrew Marr programme:  'This is a Liberal Democrat idea for our manifesto. We've delivered a lot from our last manifesto tackling avoidance, tackling evasion. But I am going to seek to pursue this within Government over the next few weeks because I think we do have time potentially in the Budget or through other processes that are going through to take these ideas forward. The proposed law would also see codes of practice applying to tax advisers strengthened to make it harder to help tax avoidance.