Tax Havens

How about blaming Thatcher for starting the whole thing off in the first place?
After all, if she hadn't changed the law so that money could be taken offshore without paying tax, this wouldn't have happened.

One good thing is that Mark Thatcher is caught up in it. Hoist by his own mother's petard!

Oh dear, the mails front page refers to a tax dodge

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/03/24/the-march-tax-justice-network-taxcast/

This is a podcast, lasting half an hour, made before the Panama papers were released. Contry by country reporting and tax havens in it.
Very interesting listening.
Whatever was said in this, rules may change after Panama.

I don't think there is any comparison to be made between Tony Benn's arrangements made regarding what would happen to his estate following his death and the the setting up of a company which enabled clients to avoid paying UK tax. As others have said, Wills that are made in this country are public documents, copies of which can, for a small fee, be obtained and examined by anyone. Whilst there was knowledge of David Cameron's father's business, it is only through the leaking of the Panamanian documents that the complex nature of the business and the amount of time during which no tax was paid came to light.

The Guardian reported that David Cameron's father ran an off shore fund that avoided ever having to pay tax in Britain. This was done by hiring a "small army" of Bahamian residents.

"The fund managed tens of millions of pounds on behalf of wealthy families ... The Panama papers reveal the details of how Cameron Senior sheltered Blairmore's profits with a series of extensive and complicated arrangements" [the company was incorporated in Panama but based in the Bahamas]. "Blairmore is shown to have been controlled using an obscure financial instrument known as "bearer shares". These do not carry the name of the owner. They are similar to bank notes in that they simply belong to the person holding the certificate in their hand... In order to avoid UK tax, the venture had to be managed and controlled from abroad. A team of six other directors from Switzerland and the Bahamas was recruited, to ensure that the majority of the Board was based outside Britain. However, the paper trail suggests this was a conjuring trick, albeit one tolerated by the law...."

Whilst I think it is clear that, in the light of all this, DC had no right to take the moral high ground and castigate Jimmy Carr for his arrangements (and he was very selective in his criticisms - making excuses for Gary Barlow), I agree with those who say that this isn't about individuals - it is a systemic, worlwide problem. I think there is a danger that after all the hoo ha has died down, everything will continue as before. Pillorying one or two individuals is not the answer - shutting down these tax havens is. I don't know how it can be done but unless it is, with the gap between rich and poor widening each year, the world will become an even more dangerous place than it is at the moment.

I wonder how DC and his wife were allowed to just put £11,000+ in the scheme when it was arranged for those with over $100,000 to put in.

The Land Registry is an important part of us knowing who owns what land in the UK. Many houses in London are owned by offshore people and conglomerates.
Cameron is wanting to sell off the Land Registry. They were stopped before by Vince Cable, and put it out for tender when parliament broke up just before Easter.

weownit.org.uk/node/638

Weownit link it specifically to the Panama papers.

What in God's name is the matter with you people. Won't you ever let up. The Cameron's have done nothing illegal, and what D.C. mother chooses to gift her family or where it came from is none of your business, any more than you helping your son financially dj is mine. I can't tell you how much your comments disgust me.

You sound like Cameron s mother nell

Yes, often wondered that myself Niggly

I just want to shout GIVE IT A REST and stop going on and on and on and on and on and on..............

I agree Niggly .... I am sick and tired about the press keeping on about this - it's like a dog chewing on an old rag. Not to mention other politicians jumping on the band wagon rubbing their hands with glee at something to dig their teeth into. They must be short on other more interesting news.

The tax returns Cameron has released are not his tax returns, just info drawn up by his accountants listing what is allegedly on his tax returns.

Don't worry niggly when someone says 'are you his/ her Mother' it means they have run out of sensible grown up things to say.
Nobody in this country has to publish their tax returns, it's between ourselves and the taxman.

Thanks roses. Actually from what I understand Mrs Cameron is a very nice woman and very well thought of, so perhaps I am inadvertently being paid a compliment!!!
You're right too about tax returns! Do you think trade unions will have to divulge where their funds are lodged?! or will they be immune from this witch hunt?! Before I get jumped on for such audacity, I was only asking, not pre judging!!!!

Cameron said - I will release my tax returns

Cameron releases what his accountants claim was on his tax returns

So, Cameron has not released his tax returns

I give up !

See all the Tory press are giving Cameron some stick this morning, well we know what their agenda is although some always deny that they have any agenda

Interestingly Cameron has only been getting it in the neck for one week and already people are suggesting that it is too much, well, go back and look at what has been said about Milliband and Corbyn - over the past year and beyond - one week!? Cameron doesn't know he is born.

Of course people are "going on about it". It's absolutely scandalous that the very wealthiest and most powerful people in the world have created, and are making full use of, a system which exempts them from the normal rules followed by the vast majority of people. I agree that if we focus too much on a few individuals there is a danger that, when they have, metaphorically speaking, had their stint in the stocks, everything will go back to how it was before.

However, I understand why David Cameron is getting a lot of flak for this. He has in the past put on his stern and indignant face and made lots of noise about "immoral" and "unethical" practices. It is hardly surprising that, when such practices (from which he will inevitably have benefited) are revealed to have been the basis for his own father's business dealings, then many people will feel outraged.

What have trade unions got to do with anything? They are not responsible for creating tax havens or any of the other financial instruments that allow the very wealthy to avoid tax.

What are you giving up niggly?

To me it looks like David Cameron is in trouble now. It is too complicated for me to grasp, but if he has done it wrong, he should get coming to him whatever he needs to. Ditto every other politician.
Will it happen to all other politicians too I wonder?
They may rally round as they dont want it happening to them.

Hopefully it should all make for them thinking a lot more about tax havens and implications.

It could be a watershed moment.

The unions? Oh well, let's add the windsors

I cannot see that the new revelations add anything of interest to what The Guardian reported a few years ago in the article posted by dj. The PM has taken responsibility for the PR disaster, which is what this story is really about.

If only DC had referred honourable members to the Guardian article, a lot of sanctimonious claptrap could have been avoided; but perhaps he isn't a Guardian reader.....

It isn't, grumppa. Cameron wants you to think it is just a PR problem.
Look at all the accountants, and lawyers involved in this.
Cameron's dad was part of the sleaze.

By the way, who were the accountants that put out his tax statements? Hope it wasn't PwC or any of the others with offices in Panama and BVI.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/04/10/david-camerons-tax-disclosure-a-story-but-maybe-not-the-whole-one/

If Cameron's dad is the issue, then there is no issue against DC.

waitingfortax.com/2016/04/09/the-prime-ministers-tax-returns/