Tax avoidance in the news

If somebody came to you and said - "I can set you up on a scheme where you will pay 1

  • "No thanks, I like to pay my taxes to ensure the country runs properly"

    Votes: 21 32.8%

  • "Sign me up"

    Votes: 43 67.2%
  • Total voters
    64
neil_g said:
youre stood on it..

:D
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oh yeah, that's where it went :)

I forgot to add,
they also paid a fortune for their houses (4 times) so paid a fortune in Land Registry (Stamp Duty) Fees and kept the local EA and solicitor in work too, someone hit a nerve?
 
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neil_g said:
if i had more money from less taxes probably like others i would spend more and get the retail business back on its feet.
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Which won't help pay for government work as much.

If you look at the way the money flows it's taxed and taxed again all the way down the chain.

Take out one level and it impacts it in more ways than just once...
 
In my eyes low and average earners would avoid the tax if possible because they could use the money.... I see it wrong that the likes of Jimmy car who surly has no money worries or does not have to choose not to holiday abroad for a couple of years to help pay bills etc. should worry about paying a 'Fair Share'

They have more money than they know what to do with, apart from wonder which supercar to buy next - that is the immortality of the situation IMHO
 
Dark Knight said:
In my eyes low and average earners would avoid the tax if possible because they could use the money.... I see it wrong that the likes of Jimmy car who surly has no money worries or does not have to choose not to holiday abroad for a couple of years to help pay bills etc. should worry about paying a 'Fair Share'

They have more money than they know what to do with, apart from wonder which supercar to buy next - that is the immortality of the situation IMHO
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There have been countless examples of people who have earnt loads but been penniless a few years later. Wealth is relative. To someone earning 15k, a person on £30k is wealthy, and to them someone on £100k is and so on. He may still have a mortgage of say £30k a month. What is a 'fair share'? He has stuck to the laws of the land.
 
A fair share would be more than 1% of his millions when we pay 30%-40% + of our 10's of thousands :lol:

If we all paid 1% fair do's - us on PAYE have no choice, so should be a level playing field

If we all paid say, ermmmm lets say 20% of our earnings - across the board, NO EXCEPTIONS, would we not all be happier, knowing that 'Everybody' pays their fair 'Share'... with the share being equal proportions of your earning
 
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Garnett said:
It's a staggering suggestion that it is jealousy that causes people to speak out.
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It's a lazy accusation and thrown around far too often. In fact, i think it's often a childish. ignorant thing to accuse someone of.
 
Well as I suspected the majority of people would do the exact same thing as jimmy and I for one don't blame them one bit because so would I!
 
I can see the papers turning this into the expenses scandal for the politicians all over again
 
So the PM is against people finding loopholes in the tax system claiming its immoral, yet runs a country that pays millions to people living abroad in the form of winter fuel allowance. If that's not immoral, what is? If u can afford to live abroad and are in a warm country like Spain, why should you get it?
 
cambsno said:
So the PM is against people finding loopholes in the tax system claiming its immoral, yet runs a country that pays millions to people living abroad in the form of winter fuel allowance. If that's not immoral, what is? If u can afford to live abroad and are in a warm country like Spain, why should you get it?
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I think you'll find thats down to European Law.

Not that I agree with it, but if it applies to all uk pensioners, then those that qualified and then moved to an other EU country are still able to claim it.
 
cambsno said:
So the PM is against people finding loopholes in the tax system claiming its immoral, yet runs a country that pays millions to people living abroad in the form of winter fuel allowance. If that's not immoral, what is? If u can afford to live abroad and are in a warm country like Spain, why should you get it?
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And, had they managed not to get rumbled, there would have been a winter fuel allowance to a certain P and E Windsor.....
 
barneyrubble said:
I think you'll find thats down to European Law.

Not that I agree with it, but if it applies to all uk pensioners, then those that qualified and then moved to an other EU country are still able to claim it.
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Exactly, letting the EU dictate to us, that's immoral. Most of the eu parliament is not elected by the uk.
 
Which is another kettle of fish completely isnt it......

That goes all the way back to 1973 and the referendum of 1975 which was two to one in favour.

You can hardly blame this govt for it though....

Mind you - its probably the bankers fault :lol::lol::lol:
 
Ste Manns said:
So, you're all fine with extremely rich celebs not paying their fair share of tax? You're all happy to pay more tax to cover it are you?

Whilst Mr Carr is earning millions of tax free pounds we are all having to pay more and more, and as Mr Cameron said, we all save up our hard earned money so we can go to see his shows, he pockets this money and doesn't pay any tax on it.

It may be (currently) legal but that doesn't make it right. Whereas I am fine with minimising taxation to a point there is a line where it becomes wrong and in this case (and many others) I think Mr Cameron is right. I would like to see all these loopholes closed and everybody paying a fair amount of tax on their income (in an ideal world) including all the politicians who make grand statements whilst all the time taking full advantage of the same loopholes they're condeming of course.

We're all (as in us lowly hard working plebs) currently suffering through austerity but if the big tax avoidance schemes were stopped and the very high earners made to pay their fair share then we wouldn't be suffering quite so much. You only have to look at Greece right now to see an extreme example of what can become of an economy when tax avoidance/evasion becomes the norm.

I do not believe it would be right to raise taxes for the very rich as just as in the 70's they'll all simply leave the country, I do believe they should be made to pay what they're supposed to be paying right now though.

p.s I'm not particularly a Cameron fan. I do however think Jimmy Carr is a .....(insert suitable swear word of your own choice) and not just because of this latest revelation of his tax affairs.
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agree :clap:
 
And if the corporations that fiddle around with debt and cross costing to appear to be unprofitable also kept their books honestly there would be less need for even rich celebrities to pay their way.

Vodafone claims it can't afford its UK tax bill in one go. I think HMRC needs to issue a few winding up orders against these sorts of companies. They happily do it against the small companies that can't pay tax so why not force Vodafone to be wound up or be honest about their accounting? It would only take one or two high profile companies having this done to make the rest of them start to behave. They've been taking out loans from their other companies in lower tax regimes so the interest payments hide any substantial profits.
 
barneyrubble said:
Which is another kettle of fish completely isnt it......

That goes all the way back to 1973 and the referendum of 1975 which was two to one in favour.

You can hardly blame this govt for it though....

Mind you - its probably the bankers fault :lol::lol::lol:
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The government could do what it wants to do rather than be dictated too, if it had any balls! Anyway the referendum was for a completely different thing.
 
Personally I'm against these offshore schemes that seem to let you away with paying low low amounts of tax (5%<) but I myself work via a Ltd Company which many would class as tax avoidance.
However for me, I earn less than the 40% threshold anyway so its not really saving me anything paying the 20% Corp tax instead.
 
chrism_scotland said:
Personally I'm against these offshore schemes that seem to let you away with paying low low amounts of tax (5%<) but I myself work via a Ltd Company which many would class as tax avoidance.
However for me, I earn less than the 40% threshold anyway so its not really saving me anything paying the 20% Corp tax instead.
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+ Dividends and claiming repayment of Directors Loans??
 
Dark Knight said:
+ Dividends and claiming repayment of Directors Loans??
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No actually, I just pay myself most of it in salary, minus expenses (mileage and lunch), not particularly tax efficient but thats not why I'm setup as a Ltd Co.
 
cambsno said:
So the PM is against people finding loopholes in the tax system claiming its immoral, yet runs a country that pays millions to people living abroad in the form of winter fuel allowance. If that's not immoral, what is? If u can afford to live abroad and are in a warm country like Spain, why should you get it?
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Why not? What about foreigners giving birth in this country and claiming child benefit when the child is no longer in this country? Pensioners have usually paid into the system unlike many other scroungers?
 
chrism_scotland said:
No actually, I just pay myself most of it in salary, minus expenses (mileage and lunch), not particularly tax efficient but thats not why I'm setup as a Ltd Co.
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That's unusual ... I was very 'Tax Efficient' myself

BUT I did take very little out of my company, instead pumping it all back in building it up over 25 years, I often now think I should have exploited the rules to the full from the start
 
Dark Knight said:
That's unusual ... I was very 'Tax Efficient' myself

BUT I did take very little out of my company, instead pumping it all back in building it up over 25 years, I often now think I should have exploited the rules to the full from the start
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Hehe, I should probably look into it and be a bit more "efficient" but I've only been self-employed for 5 months so quite new to it all!
 
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