‘Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the Treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes . . . nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands.’ Learned Hand.
American nonsense from a Judge who was showboating and yet still ruled that if the act was purely to avoid tax then it wasn’t correct
In a way I agree with income tax laws in some USA states....florida for example no income tax but replaced with sales tax, use tax, property tax and corporate tax
We are the 5th biggest economy in the world. If we can't afford to fund our services, is not because of a tiny percentage of people dodging some of their taxes.
He didn't 'get' £3.3m, he just didn't pay it. They chose to use the Isle of Man to set up the company in, it could have been anywhere. If he chose to do it in Chad nobody would give a flying ****.
How many people moaning on here have bought something on amazon because it was cheaper? Or been paid cash for whatever and not declared it? That includes petrol money someone gave you for a lift. How many of you have contracts with BT, EE, Vodafone, Eon because they're cheaper? Why do you think you're saving money from these, and other services?
Apple’s way of doing it As has been said the only real way to resolve this would be either through every country having the same tax laws...or by people choosing to not use companies that do this Neither is likely, but this could be the start of something bigger maybe http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41889787
Just to put the quantities of cash involved in context, using previous government estimates, even before these leaks Benefit fraud - £1.2b (DWP) Benefits accidentally overpaid by government error - £1.4b (DWP) Benefits unclaimed - £16b (HMRC) Tax avoided or evaded - £30b (HMRC)* *other estimates suggested this was actually £120b prior to the paradise papers being leaked
I think the super rich use Neymars as currency so they don’t have to use such big figures on spreadsheets!
There is only so long you can discuss this (it seems to be in a loop now) before we bump into those ****ing big elephants - how the taxes are raised and how they are spent. Politics is then inevitable. I believe that the emphasis on greed being a natural driver is overstated and does overlook the many good qualities in the high earner population.
The government estimate of £34b for unpaid taxes includes loads of things, not just tax avoidance and evasion, which they actually estimate to be £7.1b. https://fullfact.org/economy/tax-avoidance-evasion-uk/
Lazy quoting from me, the figures I was reading did actually say ‘not collected’ too Although ‘not collected’ also includes plenty of illegal or unethical activities too Either way the amount avoided/evaded is much bigger than the amount lost in benefit fraud
