Would you avoid tax if you could?

Andy_L

"without taking the mickey too much"

Please define "taking the mickey" and "too much"

Stephen_Leak

Yes. I would.

I do. I have an ISA. I don't see any difference between what Jimmy Carr did and what I'm doing. Both are legal. Both were specifically designed to legally avoid paying income tax. As my ISA pays no tax, not the 1% or £300K of JC's scheme, I must therefore be even more "morally wrong". Thank you, David.

PS. I also can't wait to see the half-baked scheme Baronet Gideon dreams up to sort this, and then has to back track on.

DevilsElement

The Freakonomics 'Bagel Man' is a great view/ study on human 'honesty' and what affects it. The article in the book is better though you can get a taster by searching for 'The Bagel Man' on youtube (I can't post links it appears). I think honesty comes down to conscience - People are often prepared to do things that deep down they know are wrong - how you act depends on who you think is watching/ how likely you are to be found out.

icklepeach

leachyd wrote: »

Granted university education inst cheap, but there are other ways to be competitive in the labour market, so its not essential either. Regardless of that, I'm not sure why Jimmy Carr should be paying for your daughter to gain a competitive edge at University.

There's a big market for non-degree educated doctors, you're right. I'll be sure to tell her that the rest of her cohort who do go on to uni are just trying to get a competitive edge over her and she should find her own path.

Meanwhile I'll see if my husband and I can get our wages paid to some obscure third party to see if we can end up with money left at the end of the month not vice versa. *sigh*

suchard007

If it's legal then it's not tax evasion. Let's plug some of the loopholes if we don't like it rather than having a go at someone who's playing within the rules. If we're losing so much tax through these loopholes (I think I heard on the radio something like £5billion (?) then for goodness sake get them closed down asap and make them illegal.

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Yes of course I would if I could. I pay a bit too much really which saddens me

Take_it_like_a_man,_sonny

Politicians can be booted out.

Celebs cannot.

Unfortunately, some preach about such things, but practise otherwise. I stopped listening to these non celebs preaching about giving, when some were paid fees to attend events, asking those on what they earns in a night, the girls in the checkout do in a year, to give a bigger part of their income then they do.

The same go for all the avoiders, personal or corporate. I would name them, but get a copy of private eye.

Plushchris

I've not seen any reports saying how much tax Jimmy Carr DID pay..

He could well have still paid more in tax than most people do for all we know..

I think its silly to make an example of people like this, all it will do is drive people out of the country to live in tax havens, then they'll pay no tax at all and this country wont get any money from them.

F1 drivers dont live in Monaco for the racing..

Take_it_like_a_man,_sonny

floopnoodle wrote: »

I love paying Tax, letting MPs get their moat cleaned, adding to the wine cellar and subsidising the meals in House of Commons



Can't think why I'd want to pay less :mad:

Thought I was being ripped off at £3.25 in my subsidised work canteen.

teffers

With how little I'm likely to / do earn then yes, I would reduce tax if I could.

But if you earn huge amounts then no, you shouldn't.

In reality, as always, the people who have the money can afford solutions that save them a fortune and it's the rest of us that pay to run the country.