Should Lord Ashcroft lose his peerage?

[Magilla]

Labour has taken 10 million from EIGHT non-dom donors - businessmen who don't pay tax in UK. Explain that away...

 

Indeed, and some have recieved peerages for their pleasure, while at the same time extracting a huge amount of money from the public purse in the form of expenses.

[taxman]

I see he is still avoiding paying his full whack despite all the promises he made before the election.

[mj.scuba]

I see he is still avoiding paying his full whack despite all the promises he made before the election.

 

He hasn't avoided anything. He did something perfectly legitimate and legal under the current rules. As far as I know, we don't prosecute people for things that might be illegal some time in the future.

 

For example, VAT will go up to 20% in January. You could say if you buy goods in December you will "avoid" paying 20% VAT, but really if you decide to buy goods in December, all that's happening is your paying the duty as it stands at that moment in time, irrespective of what it may be a month later, or even a day later.

 

This stuff goes on all the time. My other half works at a solicitors that advises on inheritance tax, and how to "avoid" it, lessen the tax burden. People can only do what is within the law, so if it isn't illegal there shouldn't be a problem.

[Funky_Gibbon]

He hasn't avoided anything. He did something perfectly legitimate and legal under the current rules.

 

...to continue to avoid paying the tax he'd publicly promised to pay. It might be legitimate and legal but since he got his peerage under the promise to pay that tax, he should now lose that peerage.

[Tony]

Could you explain exactly what promises he made and exactly which he's broken?