Cameron Tax Dodger

chucknorris

ffacoffipawb wrote: »

Are we expected to believe he earned no dividends or interest income (taxed or untaxed) in 2014/2015?

Does he have no savings at all?

Incredible.

Or given to his wife to avoid paying tax perhaps.

Fined £100 for late filing of returns and he doesn't keep his own copies either? It sums up Labour's attitude to money-easy come easy go and, hey, there's always the benefits system.

Interestingly, the figures released show that Osborne's tax bill paid for Corbyn's salary, with some left over for the NHS. I think people like Corbyn should show a bit more gratitude.

I don't see anything wrong with a spouse holding assets to reduce tax, it is perfectly legal, and I don't see anything immoral about it either.

chewmylegoff

Moby wrote: »

Difference is they have not planned this intentionally. Not the same thing at all.

Please can you articulate what taxes cameron has avoided and why it is wrong to invest offshore.

I agree that as a concept "totally legal" tax avoidance which is basically immoral (and probably not totally legal anyway) exists, but you cannot engage in that sort of behaviour unless you actually avoid some tax.

So can you tell us what tax he avoided by investing offshore and then we can try to play the ball instead of the man.

System

The only thing David Cameron has done wrong is to shift his position bit by bit in the face of increased opposition and press pressure.This inevitably looks evasive and a bit shifty, and is a classic error for a politician to make.

It's simply inept tactics, not legally or morally wrong.

Mistermeaner

Moby and toast = ignorant fools

By your definition my 9 year old son is dodging tax.

I have set up a junior isa for him and one the core holdings (the popular vanguard life strategy series) is held I believe in Ireland.

Cameron paid capital gains on his "off shore" fund as is required in under law. My son won't pay any.

There is no moral high ground to be found in being an ignorant twonk

N1AK

princeofpounds wrote: »

To anyone who has a shred of financial knowledge this is a non-story

Which unfortunately covers perhaps 25% of the population. Most people have very limited financial knowledge or interest, and in cases like this their anger isn't at any specific behaviour but simply at the idea someone (they don't like) is earning that kind of money at all.

The only fair criticism outstanding, in my opinion, is that he hasn't realised the information from further back. What is very apparent is that he has ensured his finances are uncontroversial during his time as prime minister, by offloading his holdings in his fathers fund for example. That's a bit like saying your a saint because you always behave nicely when you know people are watching...

The above isn't a criticism because I expect he's done anything illegal, but because he wants to give the impression he'd never sully himself by avoiding tax rather than admitting that he has like just about anyone else with some money and that's there's nothing to be ashamed of about it.

N1AK

ruggedtoast wrote: »

David Cameron, and it appears most of the posters on this thread, know everything about the legal issues involved in paying tax, and nothing whatsoever about the moral issues.

It does not however, make it in any way right. Ordinary people who don't earn enough to have account managers

Sorry we're talking about David Cameron who has paid nearly £100,000 in tax and NI each year? Yes I bet the ordinary Joe's on £25k paying less than 5% as much tax must be shocked and appalled that one man earning 8 times what they do is only paying 20+ times as much tax.

Or maybe you mean Boris who pays more tax most years than many of those poor ordinary folk pay in a lifetime.

chewmylegoff

Moby wrote: »

Difference is they have not planned this intentionally. Not the same thing at all.

Someone who intentionally invests in a pension avoids income tax at their marginal rate. They also avoid any tax on gains made inside the pension wrapper. Many people investing in pensions will be in charge of their own investment decisions and will have deliberately invested the funds inside the pension wrapper in an offshore fund.

So some questions:

1) why is the person who deliberately avoids tax by paying into a pension ok in your eyes but Cameron, who hasn't actually avoided any tax, is an immoral bar steward.

2) if the only reason to invest offshore is that you are an immoral tax avoider why on earth would anyone invest from a pension wrapper into an offshore fund? Hundreds of thousands if not millions of Uk citizens have done this - what is the point if they are already protected from all taxes by the pension wrapper.

HornetSaver

N1AK wrote: »

Yes I bet the ordinary Joe's on £25k paying less than 5% as much tax must be shocked and appalled that one man earning 8 times what they do is only paying 20+ times as much tax.

Belittling someone for earning £25k is frankly as useful to your argument as spitting at the feet of a median earner.

Where I do agree with you is the misplaced anger, both generally (though the rich are equally guilty of being disingenuous as the poor, albeit for different reasons) and in this case.

Though Cameron himself is partially to blame in this instance. Not so much for his affairs, but for how he has handled the fallout from the Panama papers. It was hardly a shining example of how to put a talking point to bed - something which he has generally been good at during his time in office. Or, dare I say it, was good at in coalition.

CLAPTON

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Finally from an economic point of view it is not in any way helpful. Capitalism only works by definition if people accrue capital and then use it to invest in things. Having trillions of dollars sitting in tax havens doing nothing is just pointless hoarding.

.

as you are an expertise that I lack, do the trillions in tax havens simply sit there doing nothing? are they not re-invested and so doing useful capitalistic work via the banking system?

Tromking

Mistermeaner wrote: »

There is no moral high ground to be found in being an ignorant twonk

Yet Cameron was seemingly desperate to be seen as ignorant of such legitimate tax planning measures. Why the embarrassment and resultant attempts at obfuscation?
Now Gideon is reluctant to come clean on anything apart from his most recent annual tax return and then one produced by his solicitor.
The Tory party machine as witnessed yesterday was a joy to behold. The fella Walker on the Daily Politics yesterday simpering with faux anger at a decent man and his father traduced by the media, yet finding time to wink at his fellow Tory MP at the end as if to say "good job, done well" for coming to 'Call Me Dave's' aid. Amongst the other trained chimps in the Commons the idiot Alan Duncan MP who before his words that anyone without a hint of wealth was a "low achiever" had finished echoing around the chamber, he was apologising for it. No doubt made to do so by a Downing Street desperate to not let the probable widespread mindset amongst Duncan's colleagues rub off on the Man of the people Cameron.
Cameron clearly can't be something he isn't, so why is he desperate to appear so. Two terms as PM probably explains it.