It seems that the Guardian is of the view not all tax avoidance is morally reprehensible.
Snort!
Tax does have to be taxing.
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All very interesting, I'm sure, but sadly it's a staw man argument.
ReplyDeleteThe reason is that the suggestions they make are not tax avoidance under any meaningful definition of the word. More importantly, given that the Gruaniad is today's target of a diversionary accusation of hypocrisy, not within the definition the paper (generally, but particularly in connection with its anti-avoidance campaigning) uses.
This is because, in all of the examples in the article, the taxpayer would experience exactly the economic impact that Parliament intended them to experience in order for their Adjusted Net Income to be reduced, namely a reduction in their take-home pay. Calling that tax avoidance is like saying that suffering a pay cut is tax avoidance.
I suspect it's for that reason that the author at no point refers to what they're suggesting as "avoidance".
If, on the other hand, one takes the view that "avoidance" is such a broad category that it includes these suggestions (and let's face it, it's just a matter of semantics so that wouldn't be the end of the world, it just makes things that little bit more confusing than they need to be - I guess the Government doesn't have a monopoly on making tax more complicated after all) then there's nothing whatsoever logically inconsistent about some types of avoidance being more acceptable than others.
Stew G
The Gruniad are no better, or worse, than any of the others, whether media, financial, meag rich and/or or political hypocrites from any background or party.
ReplyDeleteThe absence of morals is nauseating to the average person and the fact that so many avoiders or "planners" hide behind the mantle of "it's not against the law..." makes things worse.
HMRC "employing" people off the books was the final straw for many and when the truth comes out about how many of those had recently taken "early retirement" or "ewdundancy" so much the better!
Until such time as the UK taxation system can be proved to be impartial in the way it collects and enfoces the taxation of the population "across the piste" (as they do so love to say)then credibility in it will remain at an all time low.
The vast majority of taxpayers do not have enough left after paying the bills to even consider tax planning let alone avoidance, and as for evasion, they will always prefer to avoid that.