Families where no one has ever worked, nor wanted to, and claim all the benefits they can.

Sorry, I mean Anya, but I'm sure Alea will be interested.

The link you give, Anya, does not actually give numbers of unemployed. As stated on Fullfact, they cannot be compared directly because they give numbers for one and percentages for another.

The latest job vacancy figures are from January 2015 and listed as 700,000 in the DM.

www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/gor/2092957698/report.aspx#

More up to date figures of the workforce than you have given, Alea.
However, if you go down the page, you will notice that they no longer give vacancies at jobcentres on that site. Probably because it shows them in a bad light.

rosequartz Some schemes are so complex that it is difficult, without an in-depth investigation, to establish whether they are tax avoidance or tax evasion schemes. A well known example was the K2 scheme, investigated by The Times and used by several high profile people.

The Times reported that at a seminar in Birmingham, Roy Lyness of Peak Performance told an undercover reporter that his scheme would net company directors 80% of their earnings. "A contractor will net approximately 82% of their earning after all taxes. And a director will net approximately 80% after all taxes and costs."

The scheme involved UK earners "quitting" their jobs and signing new employment contracts with offshore shell companies. Those companies then "rehired" their new employee back out to the UK but take their earnings. The offshore company then paid their employees a much lower salary but also "loaned" them thousands a month. However these loans were written down as tax liabilities, reducing the overall tax bill.

I'm not sure what the outcome of the HMRC investigation was. From what I've read, it appears it was ruled that the scheme was illegitimate because it was artificially constructed solely for the purpose of reducing the tax burden. I believe the scheme was closed but was not deemed to be fraudulent/illegal. I would imagine that the average person would probably be confused by this outcome - I certainly am. It seems that those who devise these schemes almost have carte blanche to "give it a go", knowing that only the most blatantly fraudulent schemes are likely to be adjudged illegal. On top of that, to investigate these schemes is, I believe, an expensive and time-consuming matter which will not be embarked upon unless the potential tax losses are very high. Because of this, it is likely that many illegitimate schemes continue undisturbed, with the loss of billions of pounds to the government.

Whether such schemes are deemed to be illegal or not, to my mind they are just plain wrong and those that employ them deserve nothing but contempt.

djen - I did have a vision of you on the internet reading and posting links and thought I don't know how she does it (timewise), but you say you are sent them in emails - I know now!

I thought the same, rosequartz. I feel quite disillusioned...

Sorry Ana maybe it is time I started to I couldn't even get my brackets right!

No, I was replying, somewhat belatedly, to *Anniebach's post of 17.03.

Ana have you been on the [wine[?

Tax avoidance is legal, but tax evasion is illegal.
Anyone who has an ISA is avoiding tax, it is perfectly legal. Some tax avoidance schemes are quite dodgy though, a lot of slebs have used them.

Nonnie - do they answer the phone then in the end?

Annie you are someone else said about the Asian community and I'm saying the same thing happens in the SA community.

Yes, Blair had charisma. So did Thatcher (we've been here before), but Cameron hasn't and Miliband didn't. If Corbyn's got it, it doesn't show on tv but he's probably got more personality in the flesh, as it were (sounds a bit creepy actually...)

DJ I cannot see how doubling the number of people working at HMRC would make any difference to tax evasion when it is perfectly legal. Please explain?

I would however welcome money spent on training HMRC so they don't make so many mistakes and when they answer the phone to a pensioner they are not so patronising and assume we are too gaga to understand our own tax!

Grannyknot, I though you said Asian community

I understand Alea, I shouldn't have said charismatic , but surely you don't think Blair had charisma ? I shall try to think of a politician who does/had , difficult

No need found this ....unemployment fall below 6%

dj what are you saying? My first job here was a hard job with long hours on low pay - you know one of those that they couldn't recruit to, so yes, I did walk into it (with my eyes closed).

(I've got a British passport by the way when I got married in the 1980s you automatically got one if you married a UK citizen. It's much harder now with spouse visas etc.)

Please quote your source DJ

Except that there are 700,000 jobs available for 1.7 million looking for them. Quite an imbalance there

So do you think we should restrict or even ban immigration then djen?

Except that there are 700,000 jobs available for 1.7 million looking for them.
Quite an imbalance there.

Annie and everyone else. That "custom" of depositing money in an individual's bank account to meet visa requirements is extremely common in the South African community, Loads of people do it on the understanding that it is an "in and out again" transaction.

It is if course not illegal. As far as I know, no one is ever asked why their bank account then dips.

Where the accounts then differ, is that South Africans usually get jobs once they're here., it doesn't prove to be that difficult.

It was the reference to the charismatic tangoed PM that misled me Anniebach!

You could read the whole of the www.taxresearch.org.uk website, Nonnie.
On the other hand, what we should do if we want companies to pay their tax properly is to double the number of staff in HMRC instead of cutting them as this government has done and is still doing, despite the fact that they make more money than they cost.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2015/10/06/hmrcs-penalty-regime-for-country-by-country-reporting-encourages-non-compliance/

Just one article by Richard Murphy.

Dottygran, I do know numerous is not the entire Asian community but numerous does bring to mind quite a number not very few

Are they never questioned on the fact their generous bank account suddenly dips ?

@ Anniebach. Numerous is not all, I did stipulate that I was not making a generalisation about the Asian Community as a whole. Think you must have missed that bit.

@ Elena. Hi, I don’t think I made myself clear at all. The money is put into the bank account to enable the person coming into the country to fulfil financial requirements to obtain a visa. Once in the country the money is removed and the spouse then claims benefit

Did I say Blair or our PM Alea?