The Truth Behind Traingate

I don't think anyone has said tax avoidance is okay. What I have (tried to) say is that I think it is government's fault that it occurs because government makes the laws that keep it "legal" even if it is immoral. Therefore, I conclude, as I said, that there must be reasons why government does not actively prevent it more than they do.

It could be that, among other complications, it's an international issue over which individual governments have no clout. After all, the UK govt surely has no say about what goes on in the Virgin Islands even if they do have British in their full title. This will apply to other tax havens as well, I should think.

I hate to raise this as well but could it possibly be that some members of the Conservative party have investments that depend on tax avoidance to pay them huge dividends? And could it also be that some stand to benefit considerably from the privatisation of the NHS? It might explain why they are so reluctant to close tax loopholes.
Of curse not they are all honest, straight forward, hard working people!

This is an opinion

I think the whole issue here for me is that probably those like the vast majority on GN will as employees throughout their lives paid all tax due. No problem whatever with that.

It has gone towards defence of the realm, education, roads and transport etc etc. In fact what contributes to a civilised society. We collectively all benefit.

What I strongly object to are those people who actively avoid paying the correct tax but still benefit from those things the rest of us have contributed to.

Those who think that tax avoidance by Branson is okay, do you think this is acceptable, too?

"The London Borough of Newham has suggested that its research has shown that half of all its buy-to-let landlords were not registered for self assessment with HMRC when it introduced a regulatory regime for its landlords. Their estimate is that maybe £200 million of tax is not being paid in London alone as a result of the failure of landlords to register to declare tax that they owe. This compares with HMRC’s suggestion that they may lose £550 million of tax a year in this way across the country as a whole.

I have some immediate comments, and then some suggestions. The first is that the rate of non-compliance is at the higher end of research experience for non-declaration (most of which is US based) but still within it. If this rate of non-compliance is, however, to be found in a relatively easily traceable source then it may suggest non-compliance elsewhere in the UK is also higher than expected, including by me.

Second, simple extrapolation clearly suggests that the losses may be higher than HMRC’s estimate. I am of course aware that absolute returns on letting in London may be higher than the rest of the country, but I would also not be surprised if gearing was too. In that case straightforward extrapolation may not be inappropriate and losses could very easily considerably exceed £1 billion. To put that in context, the loss in this area of the tax gap alone may amount to half the cost of running HMRC, who are nonetheless planning to slash those costs, and so the chance of tackling this issue over the next few years."

And of course we have transfer mispricing by large corporations.

Income shifting by individuals

On and on it goes.

There is a population of 28,000 on the BVI.
At the same time there are over 1 million companies registered there.
How much economic activity takes place there?
Do you think every person who lives there really owns and works in at least 35 companies? They must be very busy.

dj that has been a bone of contention for years. Country by country reporting. It is ridiculous and the UK government has been entirely hijacked by its wealthy friends.

Hardly alleged when they boasted about it on Facebook

Could we see the evidence of this 'fact'? Or is it another fantasy?

?? GG

And tax breaks for the wealthy and business would that be considered shameful?

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Documents/CBC.pdf

Country by country reporting, which the UK doesn't want, but the EU does.

You really don't like to be shown to be wrong do you lemon grove. I shall add patronising to my opinion of you - that was a fine example.

Hardly alleged when they boasted about it on Facebook etc but you're right they are pretty unimportant although Corbyn clearly didn't think so when using them so shamefully.

You do make some very strange posts GG and actually I would say that the word belligerant applies very well to them.That word 'prejudice' again from you, which you apply to so many posts to different people.You need to chill a little.?

It was actually Team Corbyn who tried to involve Branson in a political situation, and not the other way round.

Another (wrong) opinion put forward as a fact. A discussion about how the railways are run cannot be commented on, as far as I can see, until they are run in such a way as to give a basis for comment. Therefore what Branson was doing running his part of them must, I would have thought, come first, then comment can be made.

There is an discussion to be had about how run them better but you don't appear to be able to get past your prejudice re certain people in order to do this.

Oh nigglie hardly in the same league!!!! A few alleged students voting twice as against a government acting illegally in an election procedure!!

Anyone who knowingly breaks the law is as culpable as the next person. I imagine students know the law or are they exempt?

Which is, I believe, illegal!

How strange, niggly, to equate students voting with the people who make the laws breaking them.

bags it is a problem but certainly not the only one as you can see from my list.

The tax gap is huge and difficult to put a totally accurate figure on.

That is where primrose got so confused and made the assumption that tax not collected merely resulted from tax avoidance, but that is only a part of the whole picture.

The highest figure is estimated at well over £100bn pa. HMRC will admit to something like £40 bn but of course it does not take all figures into account as some are unknowable, it also leaves aside debt. Which is quite large.

www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/12/lord-fink-tax-avoidance-is-normal-in-british-society

It shouldn't be, should it? I would suggest starting another thread on it, but I'm sure we've had one before, and anyway, we know who will object to and support it.

Presumably if the conservatives are to be investigated for election irregularities then an investigation will be conducted into the fact that some students quite openly and in some cases boastfully admitted to voting not once but two and even three times?!

Very appropriate.

www.theguardian.com/business/2017/aug/20/tax-relief-more-than-1000-schemes-give-us-a-break

Every government, including David Cameron’s coalition with the Liberal Democrats, has promised to cut back on the number of reliefs and tackle the avoidance and evasion it inevitably promotes, and each has failed.

In fact Cameron’s government increased the number of reliefs by almost 100, according to the Office for Tax Simplification, an agency that then-chancellor George Osborne founded in 2010.

In 2015, a report by MPs on the public accounts committee (PAC) found that “HMRC does not effectively monitor changes in the cost of tax reliefs, so is slow in identifying instances where a relief is being exploited for a purpose parliament did not intend”.

How many tax offices has the government closed?
How many fewer tax officials do we have in order to ensure companies comply with tax law?

Haha! "Belligerence"! gg.

Best laugh all day. TY!

That is a fact btw not an opinion.