Best of the Web: Bosses switch pension contributions to cash to avoid tax clampdown

Company directors switched millions of pounds worth of pension contributions into cash last year to avoid a government clampdown on tax relief for wealthy pension savers, according to the Guardian's survey of directors' pensions.

Some directors were granted all of their pension contribution as a one-off cash lump sum while others received a proportion of the money as a separate payment. Full story...

HM Revenue & Customs is giving preferential treatment to Britons who have sheltered money offshore in Liechtenstein to avoid paying tax, a leading accountancy firm says.

The Independent reports, PKF accountants said it was alarmed at how Britons who had deposited money with Liechtenstein banks would face only a 10 per cent fine on unpaid tax and have to declare unpaid tax going back 10 years while other Britons with money offshore could face fines as high as 20 per cent on unpaid taxes back 20 years. Full story...

Allen Stanford, the financier charged with defrauding investors of $7 billion (£4.3 billion), will be represented by a public lawyer after telling a US court that he has no money to pay for an attorney, The Times says.

US District Judge David Hittner ordered the Federal Public Defender's Office in Houston to take the case yesterday. "The man needs an attorney, he's got an attorney, and now we're going to proceed to go to trial," he said. Full story...

Bankers and financial industry experts predict long-term creation of direct taxes in the Cayman Islands, appeasing British policymakers and ensuring new streams of sustainable revenues, while enabling Government to gain immediate access to a multi-million-dollar loan facility, Cayman Net News reports.

While speaking privately, money managers agree that budget negotiations this week between the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and Leader of Government Business, Hon McKeeva Bush, are likely to produce a commitment to implement some form of direct taxes, even as Britain's Guardian newspaper warns of a forthcoming report that will suggest the UK may have to "bail out its offshore tax havens". Full story...