Tax Avoidance And Coalition Ministers

[Ignitionnet]

Have a watch of the most recent Dispatches.

This is concerning, and not a little dirty. Watch and comment, the Tories appear to be far too beholden to those avoiding tax to crack down on it too much. I wonder if the 900mln allocated will be targeted towards political ends rather than actually ensuring these people do pay their fair share.

They do of course pay more tax than the rest of us by raw amount however I would hope they are paying a reasonable amount by %.

Just to clarify - are you talking about tax avoidance or tax evasion? (as tax avoidance is allowed, as it is the the legal utilisation of the tax regime to one's own advantage, to reduce the amount of tax that is payable by means that are within the law).

I have no issues with loopholes being closed, and tax evaders being penalised, but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.....

(and for the record, I do not use any tax avoidance schemes - I am on PAYE, with no capital invested except for a couple of ISAs).

[Ignitionnet]

Purely avoidance. Evasion obviously is something the government has already made illegal, avoidance is something that they do have a decision to crack down on, or not.

That UK dependencies are responsible for a good part of it, British Virgin Islands, Jersey, Cayman Islands, is a major part of the discussion.

The problem with 'cracking down' on tax avoidance is, tax avoidance is a deliberate part of our system of Government. The Government uses tax avoidance to modify social behaviour - most notably, restricting consumption of booze and fags by making it more expensive, restricting the number of gas-guzzling cars on the road by making fuel and road tax more expensive. People avoid those taxes, perfectly legally, by considering other behaviours that do not incur that cost.

If we're specifically talking about cracking down on avoidance, rather than evasion, exactly what sort of avoidance is good, and what is bad?

The problem we (and I mean we, as part of the country) will have on cracking down on tax avoidance is that the UK Tax Laws and Tax System are incredibly complicated (having been built upon and jiggered about with for many decades).

My friend is a tax partner at one of the Big 4 accountancy firms, and his (and his department's) job is to find legal ways for companies to mitigate/lessen their tax - unless Government vastly simplify the taxation regime, and/or make all new legislation retroactive (which is against natural justice, for one would be being tried/found guilty of something that wasn't illegal when the transaction was committed), I am not sure how they will reduce tax avoidance.

---------- Post added at 15:06 ---------- Previous post was at 15:04 ----------

Originally Posted by Chris

The problem with 'cracking down' on tax avoidance is, tax avoidance is a deliberate part of our system of Government. The Government uses tax avoidance to modify social behaviour - most notably, restricting consumption of booze and fags by making it more expensive, restricting the number of gas-guzzling cars on the road by making fuel and road tax more expensive. People avoid those taxes, perfectly legally, by considering other behaviours that do not incur that cost.

If we're specifically talking about cracking down on avoidance, rather than evasion, exactly what sort of avoidance is good, and what is bad?

As Chris states, we could all be guilty of tax avoidance - for instance, I now mostly use public transport to get to work, thus avoiding the tax on the petrol I don't use, and I also avoid the tax on the cigarettes I don't smoke.....

[Ignitionnet]

I understand one aim is to simplify the tax code. Simplified codes have less loopholes.

---------- Post added at 15:17 ---------- Previous post was at 15:14 ----------

Originally Posted by Chris

If we're specifically talking about cracking down on avoidance, rather than evasion, exactly what sort of avoidance is good, and what is bad?

Moving money around family and around the world in order to avoid CGT, etc, I'd describe as avoidance. Not engaging in a taxed activity isn't avoiding taxes. Making money, which is a taxed activity, and moving it around to avoid paying taxes on it is somewhat different.

---------- Post added at 15:18 ---------- Previous post was at 15:17 ----------

Originally Posted by Hugh

As Chris states, we could all be guilty of tax avoidance - for instance, I now mostly use public transport to get to work, thus avoiding the tax on the petrol I don't use, and I also avoid the tax on the cigarettes I don't smoke.....

In the case of cigarettes a closer analogy would perhaps be smoking duty free cigarettes. You're engaging in a behaviour which is usually taxable but finding a method to avoid the usual taxes on them.

Re the cigarettes - that's tax evasion, not avoidance (imho).

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Re the cigarettes - that's tax evasion, not avoidance (imho).

It's avoidance if you went over there yourself and brought back amounts within the specified limits

[colin25]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

It's avoidance if you went over there yourself and brought back amounts within the specified limits

It's actually tax avoidance...you could have used your money to buy more alcohol in the duty free shop, but avoided it

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

Have a watch of the most recent Dispatches.

This is concerning, and not a little dirty. Watch and comment, the Tories appear to be far too beholden to those avoiding tax to crack down on it too much. I wonder if the 900mln allocated will be targeted towards political ends rather than actually ensuring these people do pay their fair share.

They do of course pay more tax than the rest of us by raw amount however I would hope they are paying a reasonable amount by %.

shame the bbc dont make such good documentaries.

when I asked the bbc why they only did documentaries on welfare cheats and not tax avoidance they said it wasnt in the public interest.

[RichardCoulter]

Marrying another man (if you're straight) seems to be taking it a bit far though

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/n...-36421207.html