Who is worse. Tax or benefit thieves?

[Tatman]

Clicky

My reason for starting the threas is a simple one.

i live near a benefit scrounger and it gets my goat when i hear him bragging how much in 'wages' he gets.

Having said that, is too much been made of benefit fraud and should more be done to tackle tax fraud?

[Cyclone]

Equally bad

[InvalidUser]

Theft is theft. The end result of both is the same; a lack of funds needed to provide important services.

[chem1st]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-21/google-2-4-rate-shows-how-60-billion-u-s-revenue-lost-to-tax-loopholes.html

 

The benefit cheats, are those claiming benefits they are not entitled to, or working whilst claiming.

 

Even those doing it legitimately have no incentive to work.

 

As Iain Duncan Smith said himself in the Universal credit white paper.

 

"For people reliant on benefits the returns from work can be extremely low.

In the current system, many have all or almost all of their earnings deducted

from their benefits. This lack of any significant return from work is compounded

by the complexity of separate out-of-work benefits and in-work Tax Credits and

Housing Benefit, creating a disconnect between out-of-work benefits and in-work

support. Taking a low-paid job means people running a large risk as Tax Credits

are calculated and Housing Benefit adjusted over weeks and sometimes months.

We know that many are simply not prepared to take that risk and remain trapped

on benefits for many years as a result."

[Swan_Vesta]

They're both thieves, however, tax evasion from the higher rate taxpayers deprives the revenue of far more than your average benefit cheat.

[alchresearch]

Maybe tax evaders are just sick of their taxes being spent on benefit cheats!

[chem1st]

Maybe tax evaders are just sick of their taxes being spent on benefit cheats!

 

Perhaps benefit cheats are sick of not getting the amount of benefits they should do if people paid tax

 

Benefit cheats pay more in tax than tax evaders anyhow.

 

IF supermarkets really did sell alcohol below cost price (where the cost includes DUTY), the you would have some people on benefits being net contributors to the state.

[quisquose]

I cannot condone the behaviour of either person, but from the position of societal health one has to conclude that the benefit thief is more of a cancer than the tax thief.

 

The benefit thief contributes nothing, he/she only takes.

 

The tax thief contributes something, in fact that something is likely to be significant.

 

 

Consider this, which has popped into my thoughts. You are the member of a charitable society which has decided to support a worthy cause and it is agreed that a collection should be made, and everybody should contribute at least £20 towards it. A hat is handed round and most members do put £20 in, but 3 only put £10 in, and one actually takes £5 out for himself. Nobody would have any difficulty in thinking that the person that took the money was worse than the three than only put a tenner in, even though, theoretically, the behaviour of those 3 cost more than the 1.

[Berberis]

Benefit fraud is more damaging as it effects an entire community.

[Berberis]

They're both thieves, however, tax evasion from the higher rate taxpayers deprives the revenue of far more than your average benefit cheat.

 

First of all there are two groups that have a tendency to be merged into one to try and make figures look worse.

 

Tax avoidance is unfair but legal, tax evasion is not.

 

A person who evades tax does still contribute by unavoidable taxes such as VAT.