George Osborne finally gets tough on tax avoidance!

[carosio]

But, being self-employed doesn't give you the right to rip off your fellow citizens.

 

Bleat all you like about "taking advantage of the options open to them". The true fact is that they are stealing from every single, honest taxpayer.

 

Tax evaders should have their assets seized and be thrown in jail for a considerable period of time, in my opinion. Shoplifters and burglars receive harsh sentences, tax evaders should do too.

 

Bleat all you like about stealing, they would have paid their tax legally and honestly.

[MLAR]

Bleat all you like about stealing, they would have paid their tax legally and honestly.

 

Tax evaders?

 

Only on Sheffield Forum

 

---------- Post added 09-12-2015 at 00:15 ----------

 

So you don't use ISAs or invest in a pension then?

 

A pension defers tax. It doesn't avoid, or evade it.

[Penistone999]

But, being self-employed doesn't give you the right to rip off your fellow citizens.

 

Bleat all you like about "taking advantage of the options open to them". The true fact is that they are stealing from every single, honest taxpayer.

 

Tax evaders should have their assets seized and be thrown in jail for a considerable period of time, in my opinion. Shoplifters and burglars receive harsh sentences, tax evaders should do too.

 

Its not ripping off anybody. Its taking advantage of legal tax loopholes . Big difference.

[Anna B]

[/color]

We all pay as little tax as possible. OBVIOUSLY! You do exactly the same. Righteousness eh, not attractive.

 

No, people pay as little tax as is legal, otherwise, in the real world, they will be sent to prison. It should be that simple.

 

But we have the most complex tax system in the world, currently running to 17 volumes I believe. As soon as one tax loophole is closed another one opens up. This is because very clever and very expensive tax lawyers spend hours drilling through the exact wording to exploit any weaknesses, even though the intention of the law is quite clear.

 

Court cases can take years and cost a fortune (paid for by the taxpayer presumably) but it seems the more you owe the more likely you are to be let off.

 

Morally indefensible.

Edited December 9, 2015 by Anna B

[Cyclone]

I think your post misses the point also, Cyclone. No-one is saying that corporations should go out of their way to pay more tax than they are supposed to; they just want them to stop going very far out of their way to pay less tax than they are supposed to.

There is no magic "supposed to" value.

If they can avoid most of their tax, then what's left is the "supposed to" number, and the OP is indeed saying that they should pay more.

The equivalent for an ordinary PAYE employee would be something like as follows: they agree with their employer to claim that they are actually a contractor, not an employee, thereby dodging PAYE. They then set up another company registered in Jersey or the Cayman Islands, which they pay all of their earnings to for 'services rendered'. That money then gets paid into their spouse's account on a monthly basis - voila, tax-free income.

 

I'm sure we can all agree that's very, very different from putting some money in an ISA.

And yet if it were legal, it would be legal (as described it isn't).

[Berberis]

No we don't. We pay as much as we are supposed to. What you would expect, is the same scrutiny and diligence to be used when chasing down tax avoided at all levels, not just those at the bottom of the pile. Oh, and a relevant sized fine!

 

The law says you pay X amount of tax.

The law says companies pay X amount of tax.

 

Its no different.

 

Until there is a change in the law, stop bleating.

 

The real issue with companies not paying much tax in the UK is due to other countries artificially lowering their own tax bands for companies to attract them to their shores. Like Ireland for example. Thats is why the likes of Amazon, Dell, Microsoft, Google and Oracle all have huge presences in the country. The situation is stupid. A fellow EU country can undercut you on corporate taxation so that all the jobs go across the boarder (look at NI's economic problems) but you cannot impose import duty on these countries to make up the shortfall. This is not Osborn's, but a fault with the EU, which he has no control over.

Edited December 9, 2015 by Berberis

[Cyclone]

Tax evaders should have their assets seized and be thrown in jail for a considerable period of time, in my opinion. Shoplifters and burglars receive harsh sentences, tax evaders should do too.

 

If you don't know the difference between evasion and avoidance then you shouldn't be commenting on this topic.

[Anna B]

The law says you pay X amount of tax.

The law says companies pay X amount of tax.

 

Its no different.

 

Until there is a change in the law, stop bleating.

 

The real issue with companies not paying much tax in the UK is due to other countries artificially lowering their own tax bands for companies to attract them to their shores. Like Ireland for example. Thats is why the likes of Amazon, Dell, Microsoft, Google and Oracle all have huge presences in the country. The situation is stupid. A fellow EU country can undercut you on corporate taxation so that all the jobs go across the boarder (look at NI's economic problems) but you cannot impose import duty on these countries to make up the shortfall. This is not Osborn's, but a fault with the EU, which he has no control over.

 

The UK is considered to be a tax haven. No wonder Osborne isn't cracking down on the big hitters, in spite of protestations to the contrary. He's only going for the little guys and picking up peanuts.

[Berberis]

The UK is considered to be a tax haven. No wonder Osborne isn't cracking down on the big hitters, in spite of protestations to the contrary. He's only going for the little guys and picking up peanuts.

 

Is it? By whom, it is certainly not considered to be a haven by any country I know of? Can you point me towards any evidence of this (UK being a tax haven)?

 

If you think Osborn is only going after the little guys, why is there so much complaint about the HMRC having their funding cut? The problem is, the HMRC do not actively target many people, its a computer system that works out if they need to look into your tax. Also the likelihood of you getting your tax wrong, especially your self assessment, is pretty high due to the complexity of the forms etc. Big business have teams of people to do this and so are very well versed at getting it right first time.

[Cyclone]

They make sweetheart deals with multi national companies who owe billions, without the approval of parliament, to allow them to pay a few million instead!