This debate has been on 5-Live this morning ....
The Minister can go fuck himself - the Govt. (not just this one) need to sort out the big companies \ huge earners who are either, not paying tax or paying less tax than is 'morally correct before he complain about the 'man on the street'. Cunt.
Cash is hand is very handy when a plumber recently did four hours of pipe work for me on a Sunday and charged £80 - ta v much, I don't earn too much these days.
(, Tue 24 Jul 2012, 11:31, Reply)
A hard working tradesman who skips out on £15 in tax by doing a cash job for a neighbour on a Saturday is morally wrong.
A global conglomerate who offshores billions of revenue in order to avoid paying tax is acting fairly and responsibly within its rights.
Go figure.
(
barryheadwound Mul-ti-pass? Multipass!, Tue 24 Jul 2012, 11:35,
Reply)
According to Dave Harnett's successor (The new head of the treasury)
who's job used to be creating "tax efficient structures for clients" at PWC, tax law is created by parliament and has nothing whatsoever to do with morals, therefore "efficient tax planning" is absolutely fine, morally and legally. That's the _successor_ to Dave Harnett, the chap who let Vodaphone off billions.
We're basically screwed.
/Edit: Found it. (Private Eye #1318 p30, for those following at home).
"...appt of a new chair for HM Revenue and Customs...Step forward Ian Barlow, who has built a career on tax scheming every bit as contrived as comedian Jimmy Carr's dodge - but far more costly tto the UK.
Barlow was head of tax and accountancy at KPMG from 1993 to 2001 and then became senior partner in London until 2008. Over this period he was directly responsible for selling some of the most aggressive tax avoidance schemes on the market, many of them already exposed by the Eye. Here is a taste of some that made it in to the courts..."
[snip synopsis of each dodge, many of which involve giving offshore child companies lots of tax free money, then borrowing it back from them]
"As a dyed-in-the-wool tax dodger, before it became unfashionable he wasn't shy about it. "There is no meaningful distinction to be drawn between acceptable tax planning and unacceptable tax avoidance," he declared in 1999. "Tax is an aftificial construct of legislation. If parliament deems something unacceptable, it can legislate against it. What is left is acceptable." Exploiting loopholes, however artificial, is fair same: so no room for "moral repugnance" there. What next? Bob Diamond for the Band of England no doubt..."
(, Tue 24 Jul 2012, 13:32, Reply)