Tax avoidance and Jimmy Carr

Jimmy Carr made a big brouhaha about Barclays Bank and its tax avoidance schemes. It is both reasonable and fair to point the finger at him now.

Sulis Following your logic, in an ideal world everyone would find a legal way to avoid paying some or all tax. Who then pays for the NhS, schools, roads, police, firefighters, etc. etc.?

I should like to see a law that prevents anyone participating in a legal tax avoidance scheme from becoming an MP.

Why are there any 'legal tax avoidance schemes'? If these loopholes exist and are so well known, why have they not been sewn up long ago? Cameron obviously is aware of them, so why has he not acted to close them? Too many of his mates involved?

Let's not loose sight of the fact the tax avoidance is legal. I know we are all suffering with taxed pensions and low interest on savings but I'm sure if we had Jimmy Carr's money we would be the first to sack our accountant if they didn't find these schemes. The Govt. should concentrate on tax evasion and the millions in drug monies being laundered!

I'm not so sure that this K2 scheme is legal. Revenue and Customs are investigating whether these so-called loans are genuine. If they come to the conclusion that they are not genuine, then the scheme is not legal.

weestieryaya You can speak for yourself concerning a willingness to be advised about tax avoidance but you may not speak for me.

A good accountant is worth every penny of his fee.

David Cameron did not 'out' him. He was asked by Sky's Adam Boulton at an interview whilst in Mexico at the G20 meeting about Jimmy Carr. He is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.

Why is it just the Tory Party that it is put in the frame. They are all in the same bed. I think all M.P.'s and Ministers, infact anyone in the Public Sector taking the Public's money should declare all of their earnings and financial dealings. The House of Commons and the House of Lords would be an eye opener. Only a fool would not beleive 'all' parties have their abusers.

Tax avoidance is plainly wrong.

The hypocrisy of comedians, T.V. interviewers etc., who chastise others and slate people whilst doing the same do take the bloody biscuit.

Jimmy Carr, Bono etc., have reaped the reward of that hypocracy and I bet there are some very worried people about, praying they won't get found out.

Whoever manages to avoid tax the only relevant fact is legally or illegally. If legal we have absolutely no right to criticise. I just wish I had enough money to make tax avoidance worthwhile but it's not Jimmy Carr's fault that he does and I don't.

Nanban Are you suggesting that we should only criticise a person for doing something illegal and not consider whether his or her actions are unethical? Or does this view apply only to tax matters?

In the world of form-filling, rules and regulations, if the rules aren't broken, if the letter of the law is followed I am saying that we cannot invent an entirely different category to suit. In a small way but nevertheless 'unethical' how many of us have helped ourselves to stationery from the office, made personal calls, thrown a sicky when not ill. And they are all firmly breaking the rules. Jimmy Carr used bad rules to his advantage - the answer is to make better rules.

Tax avoidance is not illegal but if carried out aggresively is highly questionable.
Tax evasion is illegal and immoral.

Greece, Italy etc have suffered from a high level of tax avoidance/evasion and look where that has helped to land them.

If we and that includes large corporations paid the correct tax/VAT - I suspect that everyone's tax liablilty would drop considerably.

Collecting unpaid tax/VAT would go a long way to sorting out our debt.
Cuts to early years, university fees, elderly care etc etc would not have to happen.
I could go on, but tax is undoubtedly the price to pay for a civilized society.
Now try to convince me that those who avoid/evade their tax are not at best dropping out of their responsibilty to society and should be considered both immoral and in some cases criminal.

I couldn't even begin to convince you of that, whitewave because I couldn't have put the case for taxation better myself.

I am tempted to use capitals to repeat - it is Carr's hypocrisy in criticising someone for using a legal tax-avoidance scheme then doing the same thing himself that has annoyed most of us.
I don't recall any post suggesting that 'the other lot' were any better than the present government - I think the expenses scandal showed very clearly what can happen when MPs are able to interpret the rules to their own advantage. You can google a list of MPs who did not make exorbitant claims. There is not much to choose between parties these days - Blair demolished the Labour Party and the LibDems have had to make too many compromises in order to get hold of a little power. Anyway, the fact that the previous government were shifty does not exonerate the present government - perhaps the Leveson enquiry will drag a few more skeletons out of the closet.

On the subject of tax collection, many more Compliance Officers are to be made redundant - whose crazy idea was that?

I'm simply saying that if the rules allow avoidance, the rule should be changed. There was another thread talking about the other end of the scale when people cheat the benefits system completely illegally and yet people are reluctant to report them. The bill for benefits scams runs into millions but celebrities avoiding tax legally are much easier targets, and sell more newspapers.

What I cannot understand here is that we can all say that as avoidance is legal then it is OK to ensure that we actively pursue a policy of paying as little tax as possible, including registering our company overseas and thus ensuring that no tax in paid in the UK. Yet at the same time benefiting from everything the UK has to offer, including being picked off the road if we are run over, using the roads, enjoying the National Parks, ensuring that where possible we hold back the sea and rivers etc from flooding our houses - we could go on and on. Who is paying for all these benefits then? If we have ensured that we have paid as little as possible where is the morality in this - How easy it is to say that the government should do something about it -we should all take responsiblity for our own actions, and live with the consequences

This week, Downing Street hasn't said that there has been a change of mind about publishing the tax returns of ministers – a plan much trumpeted by Mr Cameron – but it has said that it is still under discussion and won't be happening any time soon. I wonder why.

The bill for benefits cheats may run into millions. but it has been estimated today (Andrew Marr programme) that the actual cost of tax avoidance amounts to 25 BILLION a year! We could be a prosperous country with little national debit in no time if the tax system was simplified and offshore investments and tax havens were stopped. The lower paid could be lifted further out of income tax - we all pay according to what we spend on - no-one avoids paying tax through their personal expenditure. Perhaps we should be ticking the odd box to say what we prefer our taxes NOT to be spent on? I sure didn't vote to go to war in Iraq when I voted New Labour!

I'd love to be able to tick a box that tells the Government that I don't want my tax spent on renewing Trident and another that I do want it spent on recruiting more nurses and midwives and on reducing class sizes in schools. It would be nice to have options on how the Council Tax is spent too.

The options lie in our democracy , and because we are a democracy we will sometimes get something we don't agree with- Tony Blair would probably paid the price for Iraq if he had remained in government . Likewise David Cameron may will pay the price for the News International debacle or something else that will blow up before the next election.

If however the population feel so strongly about an issue in the meantime there are ways and means to influence government look at how many U-turns this one has made!!

We can't as an individual get everything we do or don't want from the tax system but together we can get a reasonably civilized society, where the sick are cared for the poor are helped our children are educated etc.

Of course benefit fraud is a major business, but it disappears into oblivion when compared to Tax avoidance and evasion.

Well said, Whitewave (what a lovely name).

thanks for the compliment! I am Cornish and my name Jennifer is the anglacised version of Guinavere which means whitewave -- bit convoluted isnt it???!!

I thought that was the case. I'm a jenifer as well but only one n. I'm also Ann with no e.
I tell people I was born during rationing!

I am Carol with no 'e' - I think I was meant to be called after my grandmother, who was Caroline. Perhaps the registrar ran out of ink.

jeni are you Cornish as well? My sister is Anne with and e so we are obviously much younger than you!

No, pure black country. But I've lived near Bristol for the last 33 years, which now I think of it is almost half my life!