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Celebrity tax avoidance, set to become a hot topic this summer?

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  • There should just be one tax - income tax - would be simpler and cheaper to collect and harder to legally avoid paying.

    As for Carr - most people would take the option of paying less tax if it was there for them but he has satirised corporate tax avoidance on 10 o'clock live so this makes him a bit of a hypocrit. He certainly deserves all the stick he gets!
  • edited June 2012
    I actually think its very simple, you should have to pay a minimum amount plus

    if you want to claim expenses this must be done through a company

    if you own a company (UK or otherwise) which is making gross profit (before dividends or anything else) your tax minimum must be paid from that, assuming you are not paying it from direct income, and a percentage of any income you receive after that also taxed as normal

    or am I simplifying?
  • Fair point Muttley, that show does spend a disproportionate amount of time getting yuks out of its studenty audience by going on about bankers and corporate tax. Also good point Smudge, rich celebrity tax dodgers demanding that I contribute to social projects get right on my pip. I've had a volte face on the issue - for hypocrites that demand people should pay for social projects and that crack jokes about "the rich" improving their tax positions, the papers should have a field day.
  • Well it seems that looking for loopholes has caused Rangers major problems in the way overseas players were paid.I presume this is part of the purge the Gov are on?
  • edited June 2012
    Tax the rich to hell and give it all to the poor. When the rich leave the country pay people a lot lot less to work in manufacturing, as there won't be many options with services now overseas, and then our manufacturing exports will increase massively.

    Limit everyone to one child and stop foreign travel.

    That will sort it out.



    Install a certain Adolf hitler as our leader
  • Tax the rich to hell and give it all to the poor. When the rich leave the country pay people a lot lot less to work in manufacturing, as there won't be many options with services now overseas, and then our manufacturing exports will increase massively.

    Limit everyone to one child and stop foreign travel.

    That will sort it out.



    Install a certain Adolf hitler as are leader
    he's dead and it should be 'our', and not 'are'
  • Tax the rich to hell and give it all to the poor. When the rich leave the country pay people a lot lot less to work in manufacturing, as there won't be many options with services now overseas, and then our manufacturing exports will increase massively.

    Limit everyone to one child and stop foreign travel.

    That will sort it out.



    Install a certain Adolf hitler as are leader
    he's dead and it should be 'our', and not 'are'
    The grammar police are out today.
  • ^ nothing at all to do with grammar, 'are' is simply the wrong word
  • I love the terminology. Tax efficiency ! Wtf. Just a way of paying as little as possible for those that can hide as much of their wealth as they can. Poor Joe Average can claim for f all and has his tax stopped at source. Everyone should have to pay tax at source and then if you have good cause claim some back.
  • ^ nothing at all to do with grammar, 'are' is simply the wrong word
    I have changed it for you my good sir
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  • edited June 2012
    I love the terminology. Tax efficiency ! Wtf. Just a way of paying as little as possible for those that can hide as much of their wealth as they can. Poor Joe Average can claim for f all and has his tax stopped at source. Everyone should have to pay tax at source and then if you have good cause claim some back.
    Nobody should pay tax at source as, if people withold money, governments of all colours might be forced to represent those who elected them rather than faceless EU bureaucrats and big corporations who donate to their parties and take them out on junkets.

    Government is the servant of the people not the other way round.

    Too many of us forget that which is why they get away with murder- literally in some cases.

    The PAYE system should have been strangled at birth. It is arguably the greatest affront to personal liberty that there is as the right of protest is removed.
  • edited June 2012
    I love the terminology. Tax efficiency ! Wtf. Just a way of paying as little as possible for those that can hide as much of their wealth as they can. Poor Joe Average can claim for f all and has his tax stopped at source. Everyone should have to pay tax at source and then if you have good cause claim some back.
    OK in theory BUT .. (you knew there was a but a'coming) reclaiming tax would entail employing about 6 million tax inspectors/calculators or the development of highly sophisticated software which would be inherently open to viruses, gremlins and any other computer disease you can name. The up side would be that the employment of tax inspectors would cure the unemployment figures, BUT given that 99% of school leavers supposedly leave school with less intelligence and knowledge than they had whilst being rocked in the cradle, the tax system would soon become 'unfit for purpose' and would need highly motivated and intelligent offshore,contract personnel in Bangalore (Bangers Galore) to sort out the infernal mess and thereby defeating the whole object of the tax raising exercise.
    The only solution is to close loopholes in the system and to publish the amount of declared earnings, dividends and other stream of income for EVERYbody and the amount of tax they pay. BUT, given the complexity of modern life, anyone able to and with a fortune to hide would simply go and live in a tax haven. For those people, I would declare them persona non grata and make them outlaws liable to imprisonment should they set foot in the country and/or should they try to do business here. Radical change calls for radical solutions. Those solutions might well entail hunger, famine and pestilence for a good part of the population. Ask the Russians, they have gone through 'interesting times' ad nauseum and are still getting ripped off by anyone with money .. and/or a gun.
  • I love the terminology. Tax efficiency ! Wtf. Just a way of paying as little as possible for those that can hide as much of their wealth as they can. Poor Joe Average can claim for f all and has his tax stopped at source. Everyone should have to pay tax at source and then if you have good cause claim some back.
    Nobody should pay tax at source as, if people withold money, governments of all colours might be forced to represent those who elected them rather than faceless EU bureaucrats and big corporations who donate to their parties and take them out on junkets.

    Government is the servant of the people not the other way round.

    Too many of us forget that which is why they get away with murder- literally in some cases.

    The PAYE system should have been strangled at birth. It is arguably the greatest affront to personal liberty that there is as the right of protest is removed.
    Possibly in an ideal world you are right Len. Until then it's Joe Bloggs that's gets shafted as usual and the wealthy who get all the breaks. If every pound earned was taxed at source for all work done and then claimed back I reckon the exchequer would see a fair bit more money than it currently does from those who can afford to be "tax efficient"
  • Surely if everyone had the choice they would be doing the same? If I was wealthy I would be doing the same. For years the wealthy have taking advantage of the loopholes in the taxing system and nothing has been done to change it.
  • Surely if everyone had the choice they would be doing the same? If I was wealthy I would be doing the same. For years the wealthy have taking advantage of the loopholes in the taxing system and nothing has been done to change it.
    Agreed. I would love the chance to be "tax efficient" via my accountant but George Osborne has his hands on my money before I do.

  • It's been going on in the building trade for ages I'm a spark and a lot of agency's pay via offshore companys because its less hassle for them they don't have to worry about dealing with Cis deductions
  • I went to a Ken Dodd show once. He includes jokes about his run-in with HMRC in his act.

    He was accused of evasion (tax fraud) but he "did an 'Arry" and got himself acquitted, which of course means he was innocent all along.

    Take That and Jimmy Carr have not been accused of any sort of tax fraud and it is quite important to be able to recognise the difference. The problem with tax avoidance is that by definition it is legal. But, it is frowned upon, and not everyone's cup of tea, (as I read on a forum somewhere, a bit like farting in a lift). The only way of stopping tax avoidance is to make the system so simple that there are no loopholes. Governments do the opposite.
  • edited June 2012
    Loopholes generally aren't just suddenly found, like a shiny penny lying on the pavement ........ "creative" accountancy is a genre all of it's own, as we can see by the fabulously wealthy and the well connected being able to "shelter" income.

    It's all legal, of course.
  • If I was a multi millionaire I would ensure I paid all my tax due to the Government. I see it as my duty as a responsible person living in the Society that enabled me to become a multi millionaire. Whatever tax I paid, I would still be a multi millionaire.

    These so called celebrity socialists get right up my goat - Jimmy Carr be a great example. Takes the piss out of 'the toffs' when he's worse than so many of them. Let's hope more of them get their comeuppance.

    The sooner these loopholes for individuals and corporations are closed the better. Then stuff them with 100% fines for the money they've swindled out of the Country and Joe Public.
  • edited June 2012
    There should just be one tax - income tax - would be simpler and cheaper to collect and harder to legally avoid paying....
    Government policy is always, and will always be, to have as broad a range of taxes as possible. That way they spread the risk if any one tax stream dries up for whatever reason.
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  • Surely if everyone had the choice they would be doing the same? If I was wealthy I would be doing the same. For years the wealthy have taking advantage of the loopholes in the taxing system and nothing has been done to change it.
    That's not entirely true, many loopholes have been closed (conifer forests were all the rage a few years ago, then rubbish British films as both attracted generous tax breaks), but as soon as one loophole is closed, clever tax accountants find a new one.

    A comparable situtation is with F1 car designers. Every now and then the FIA change the rules to slow the cars down, but the speed loss is quickly made up, as the designers find ways of working around the rules.
  • Will certainly make 8 out of 10 cats interesting


    What are the 5 most talked-about things in the news this week?.

  • edited June 2012
    There is no need to avoid or evade tax if you live here; nobody pays any direct tax at all. There is no income tax, no corporation tax for companies & no VAT either (yet). The country runs on an entirely different economic model based on oil revenues & on the fact that the state owns all the major businesses in the country including the airports, the airlines, the container ports, the power companies, the construction companies, most commercial properties, many of the top hotels, the domestic transport systems & most of the tourist sites.

    There ARE however a lot of indirect taxes that we have to pay including visa fees, rental housing tax, alcohol tax, restaurant food tax & hotel tax. Automatic speeding tickets are another huge source of revenue for the state!! In addition all privately owned companies have to pay for annual trade licenses, which are not cheap.

    It works well but there is no social security system as such, all schools are private & all but emergency health care has to be paid for. A great place to live as an expat for a short period of time, but I'm not sure I could live here for ever. It gets too flipping hot in the summer!!
  • Will certainly make 8 out of 10 cats interesting
    Something wants to.
  • Unlike the weather I think it will be a 'hot topic' this summer, but like the bankers 'bonuses' these schemes/scams/will go on because the accountants, tax consultants and other "tax efficient" wheezes will just be repackaged as something else.
    Of course it has a serious effects on the economy, but probably 5 minutes after Pitt introduced an income tax bill in the commons some creative individual had a 'cunning plan' as black adder might suggest. Personally I do not buy into this it is legal, therefore it is all right opinion. Delude yourself all you like, just make an honest attempt to pay your bill, leave a tip, and remember you cannot take it with you.
    At least I have been 'advised' this is the case.
  • He has apologised this morning and will not be continuing with the scheme.

    I look forward to Vodaphone doing the same....
  • Apparently Jimi has seen the light, it was all a terrible mistake, he no longer is part of scheme, he was 'advised'.......
    So just a 'conspiracy' then to 'avoid'........


  • The PAYE system should have been strangled at birth. It is arguably the greatest affront to personal liberty that there is as the right of protest is removed.
    I have to say I have never understood why earning money was a crime just as I object to Employers NI as it should be a good thing for companies to employ people. If you collect tax through what we spend then it is much harder to avoid. It also catches those who get paid a lot of money in cash and are able to declare a much lower income.
  • PAYE - just been told by the tax man after informing them of my new address that I have underpaid by 1200. Isnt it my employer's duty to make sure i pay the correct tax? Really pissed off with this.
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