Well done Smarmy Dave and Lapdog for bringing the economy to a halt.

[JFKvsNixon]

This government has promised countless times to deal with tax havens, whilst doing bank handed deals with Switzerland that shafted the better laws that (for once) was coming from Brussels.

 

To be fair it tales time to deal with the tax havens, Labour never managed it in 13 years so, it's too earlier to judge whether this government will be successful.

[Tony]

Cameron's father began the business in 1979 and he died just after the general election.

 

Before 1979 it was illegal to take money out of the country without government permission - ISTR no more than £50. I don't imagine that you would like to live in that sort of country?

 

As for tax havens, well they are there and we have all sorts of screwed up opinions about them both good and bad, but how do you think those nations' economies would fare without being centres for finance?

 

Just how would you propose dealing with tax havens?

[green]

 

Just how would you propose dealing with tax havens?

 

Globalisation has created huge companies with pools of accountants and solicitors whose prime intention is to avoid & abuse tax laws in the country they trade. These companies then have a significant trading bias over their competition, which has over time killed good national or local companies.

 

Im a simple person really Tony and i can see a simple solution.

 

Rather than allow global companies to create a network of holding and trading companies that move monies round, why cant UK Plc say, if you trade in the UK, you have one defined company you trade that business through. So when HMRC go into them on their 5 yearly check, rather than having to need an army to undertake the job of going through their accounts, hows about its a whole lot more simplified. Our tax system needs to be vastly changed for such simplifications, but it needs doing.

 

Also, the solicitors and accountants who continue to come up with various loopholes and knowingly provide services to abuse our tax laws, need to be fined heavily, along with the firms involved with undertaking their services.

 

Do you think its ok for Barclays to pay 1% corporation tax? Or for Vodafone and Boots to have a box office in Switzerland with 1 staff member manning it, thus entitling them to avoid £1.6 BILLION in UK tax (and only paying 1%). http://politicalscrapbook.net/2012/03/vodafone-swizerland-tax/

 

Apart from the monies these companies avoid, its the competition that they also take out.

 

We dont need these vultures anymore.

[green]

Aptly timed article in the Observer regarding tax "management"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/apr/22/corporate-taxation-rates-cayman-islands?CMP=twt_fd

[Tony]

green, first you need to double check who owns those companies owned and where they operate because sweeping statements like 'Barclays only pay 1% corporation tax' don't reflect this. Your simple plan would kill UK trade. You'll need a better plan, it's not so simple, but you certainly are right to say that the UK system does need simplifying.

[green]

green, first you need to double check who owns those companies owned and where they operate because sweeping statements like 'Barclays only pay 1% corporation tax' don't reflect this. Your simple plan would kill UK trade. You'll need a better plan, it's not so simple, but you certainly are right to say that the UK system does need simplifying.

 

The shareholders own these companies. In Barclays case data provided by Barclays shows that £100 invested in Barclays shares in 2006 was worth £29 at the end of 2011 compared with £108 if it had been invested in the broader FTSE 100 index. Qatar have a significant holding when they pumped some billions in 2008. As we know for the first time this year the shareholders are now questioning the pay packages and causing Mr Diamond some friction. Good, but about 3 years too late. Most people on the renumeration committees are directors of other companies, so it becomes another old boy network that scratch one anothers backs.

 

My plan wont kill UK Trade, thats a fallacy. If companies cant/wont pay the UK tax there are a multitude of companies within the UK who would quickly fill their places. At lets be honest, if Amazon had no choice but to pay tax or Vodafone......would they walk away from these markets? I think not.

 

These companies are now becoming new "too big too fails". If G4S or Capita would to go down, would UK Plc jump in? I bet there would be pressure for them to do so.... We need more SME's.......and less huge companies.

[spooky3]

Can you read? Economic growth has shrunk from 0.6% pa to .1%.

 

Can you, they also say the recent shrink is due to revised figures from before, figures which Labour manipulated to hide the truth.

 

Funny or what, you're moaning about your lot again, oops

[Anna B]

"In the Century after 1700, millions of people lived in desperately poor conditions, deprived of any meaningful say in their own destiny, and condemned tho lives of demeaning drudgery, they relieved their frustrations with in spasmodic episodes of mob violence.

 

At the top a guilded elite maintained tight control over the levers of patronage. Under the oligarchic system nicknamed 'Old Corruption,' a handful of political families and their hangers-on jelously hoarded jobs and influence.

 

In 21st Century Britain we have come full circle. We are sacrificing the gains that Britain made in the decades after 1945. With social mobility in retreat, power and wealth have, slowly but unmistakenly, begun to migrate into the hands of a relatively small elite"

 

So it says in the book 'The New Few.' What is surprising is this is the view of Old Etonian and Baronet Ferdinand Mount, who ran the number 10 Policy Unit under Margaret Thatcher and then headed the Right-wing Centre for Political Studies.

 

So much for it being the Politics of envy / communist / left wing / crack pot propaganda....

[green]

 

So it says in the book 'The New Few.' .

 

Anna who is the author? Would you recommend it?

[spooky3]

Anna who is the author? Would you recommend it?

 

AFAIK (or can see) it's not released until the 26th April 2012, hmm, so no reviews on Amazon, but here is a Mail review...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2132919/Bankers-drowning-money-Out-touch-politicians-Unaccountable-quangocrats-Not-generations-run-Britain-far-removed-common-man.html#ixzz1segFbiAW