Tax - moral issue or legal issue?

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webberg
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Tax - moral issue or legal issue?

Post by webberg »

This post is not meant as a rant but I suspect will come across as one.

I'll also declare an interest. I've been working in UK taxation at various levels since 1976. Consequently I have a very good knowledge of the system of UK taxation (and some other territories as well) and have been described as an "expert". I would not necessarily agree with that but I do have knowledge.

The press in the UK has been obsessed with stories of how the wealthy avoid tax and how this is not "fair". I suspect that stories of rich people who are supposedly up to no good are great for selling papers. Unfortunately the truth is often the first casualty in these stories and facts are either omitted or twisted to create the impression required.

We are now in the party political conference season and the elected idiots are having their 15 minutes of fame on the TV by making all sorts of ridiculous statements about how wealthy people should be paying a "fair" amount of tax.

There is no definition in UK legislation of "fair".

Consequently, if you take the view that taxation is nothing more than legalised extortion (to quote the present head of the UK's body responsbile for tax) is it "fair" to pay more tax than you are legally obliged to?

The Government has the power to change the law, to make it clearer, to alter rates and rules, often retrospectively, so if they think current levels of tax are not "fair", the answer is in their own hands.

The alternative is that each person chooses an amount he/she thinks is fair and pays that. Does this mean that an anti nuclear campaigner can calculate how much of his/her tax goes on that part of the UK budget and withholds it?

Clearly not. Consequently if I choose to pay exactly what the law demands why am I potentially subject to HMRC investigation and being named in the press as a person of such low morals that I would deliberately disobey the law and pay more than I have to?

Over to you.
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billwright
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Re: Tax - moral issue or legal issue?

Post by billwright »

webberg wrote:
The Government has the power to change the law, to make it clearer, to alter rates and rules, often retrospectively, so if they think current levels of tax are not "fair", the answer is in their own hands.
..... and there you have it in a nutshell.

All the flim-flam designed to make law abiding citizens feel like law breakers is a disgrace. For all their protestations, MP's are on to a really good thing tax wise with all the exemptions that they are "entited to". I reckon that that subject should be investigated further and make them, for example, pay taxes on their second home allowance and profits from that. It's public money that they speculate with and after all, they are volunteers.

When I worked away from home, I had to pay my lodgings and travel expenses to and from them each week from my own (already taxed) pocket.

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webberg
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Re: Tax - moral issue or legal issue?

Post by webberg »

I agree Bill.

Politicians get a number of tax breaks and very generous allowances.

They do not have to declare and make available their tax records when they stand for Parliament and their expenses are a disgrace.

To then try and play the moral guardian card on us!
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Paul Victory
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Re: Tax - moral issue or legal issue?

Post by Paul Victory »

It's a legal issue. There's no way they can invent a system that is totally 'fair'. I thought the witch hunt that was launched against Jimmy Carr after he participated in a perfectly legal tax avoidance scheme was outrageous and totally hypocritical.
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