Sponging Billionaires - Time we paid more tax

[StephenStephen]

It’s not the companies fault, it’s the system that allows it. Unfortunately it’s normally those that set the system that benefit from it!

Honestly though, if the options available to you were to continue paying tax as you have been paying or legally paying just a fraction of that amount, who would choose to pay the higher amount?

I would probably choose to pay the higher amount - I'm happy to pay a reasonable amount of tax, and am disappointed at the more and more widely held assumption that we would choose only to contribute as we are legally obliged, rather than morally motivated.

 

[motorbiking]

Its funny how all the BBC news is focused on Apple, a company which pays the most tax out of any company and not the 3 actors in the BBC tax payer funded, TV show, who had their income paid tax free off shore and then funneled back to them as interest free, never to be repayed loans. Apple may have shopped around for the best deal, but come on, what individual in their right mind would think its OK to earn your money tax free.

The beeb should pull the plug on the show.

 

[noseall]

Its funny how all the BBC news is focused on Apple, a company which........

........avoids paying more tax than any other company on earth.

 

[Brigadier]

I've had a bit of a read and, no, I can't find a source for the Panama Papers.
German newspaper only says "John Doe", and says they wouldn't reveal source anyway.

I don't believe that us plebs stand to gain from this leak: off-shoring will probably just move to another group of jurisdictions.

Might be a power-grab attempt on the UK off-shoring network?

 

[Mottie]

Putting the morality argument to one side for the moment, isn't the fact that these companies or individuals can legally avoid paying their fair wack of tax is the fault of the government and the government alone? It’s the government officials these TV makers should be targeting, not those that are doing what they are being allowed to do.

Regarding the TV actors who are taking loans from their own companies and never paying them back, surely it would be a simple matter of either making it illegal for anyone to take a loan from a limited company or, if it’s a foreign registered company, to make it so that a UK resident has to pay a punitive tax on any 'loans' from foreign companies. Surely that can’t be too difficult?

 

[Notch7]

Regarding the TV actors who are taking loans from their own companies and never paying them back, surely it would be a simple matter of either making it illegal for anyone to take a loan from a limited company

As far as I know loans not repaid within 9 months are subject to tax -in UK ltd company. It may not apply on foreign companies

 

[Notch7]

Perhaps the Scott Trust Ltd should be investigated for its tax haven arrangements?

 

[Brigadier]

Putting the morality argument to one side for the moment, ..........

I don't think you can.
Each of the constituent tax rules of the "dodge" is there for good reasons and applications: it is only by combining them in circuitous fashion solely for the purpose of minimising one's tax liability, that this is newsworthy at all.

Perhaps drafting a law whereby a "fair and reasonable" test is applied to one's tax arrangements is made, would be the practical way forward?
After all, any "concrete" rule would only be (written by?, and) circumvented by the current crop of "advisers" anyway.....

 

[Notch7]

The majority of Britons with a work pension will have investments held in offshore accounts.

 

[Gerrydelasel]

we would choose only to contribute as we are legally obliged, rather than morally motivated.

But how do you quantify how much is needed to satisfy your moral motivation? If the law allows and requires you to pay £X per year, how do you know your moral motivation in fact requires you to pay £X+Y per year? And how would you pay it, exactly, when the state does not allow tax 'donations'?

 

[motorbiking]

As with everything its about scale. Saving £500 tax on a bike purchased through cycle to work scheme is a tax dodge if you don't plan to ride to work, but it fuels the UK cycle retail economy. Funneling 100% of your £300,000 pay packet, which is funded by the tax payer to start with, avoiding nearly £130k in tax, is completely immoral. Yes HMRC should and probably will investigate.

 

[JohnD]

The majority of Britons with a work pension will have investments held in offshore accounts.

Are you telling us that workplace pensions are avoiding tax?

 

[Gerrydelasel]

Anyone with an ISA is avoiding tax.

 

[Notch7]

Are you telling us that workplace pensions are avoiding tax?

I didnt say workplace pension, although I agree it would not apply to them

any private pension either through employer or private

 

[JohnD]

Are you saying that Personal Pensions are avoiding tax?