Hmrc Are Tax Avoiders !

[venator]

It beggars belief...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2263208.stm

Quis custodet ipsos custodies?

[Canary42]

... over 12 years ago !

[venator]

Does that make it OK?

These people are enforcing laws which they have cynically broken

[baza]

12 years or 5 minutes ago, it just shows civil servants are as bent as the the MP's they are supposed to work for, hang on, that's us the tax payers.

[venator]

Has anyone been sacked for thid tax avoidance scam?

it was on Gordon Brown's watch

Gordon used the PFI fiddle to claim he was balancing the books - he was mortgaging our childrens' earnings.

[baza]

Some say G.B. was prudent the rest of us know different.

[venator]

GB and Tony were fraudsters

[Svejk]

Well found. I had a feeling Labour were opening a can of worms with this. Lol, you could tell some of them weren't so keen on it from the get-go. (I'd presumed for personal reasons)

[joggerjayne]

Oh, so the false declaration was just "a mistake"?

That's okay then.

So a useful precedent statement for anyone else who makes an erroneous declaration? Err, it was just "a mistake"". Oops, sorreee!

[joggerjayne]

Should offences that happened a long time ago no longer be punished?

Rolf Harris and Stuart Hall are probably hoping so.

[factor-fiction]

I'm never sure where the line is drawn between acceptable tax avoidance and unacceptable tax avoidance.
What about:
- paying a decorator/windowcleaner/gardener in cash
- taxpayer putting savings in the name of non-tax paying spouse
- using a salary sacrifice scheme to avoid NI,
-taking up to 25% of your pension as a tax free lump sum

- applying (as the Milibands did) a retrospective deed of variation to a deceased parent's will to save a wad of inheritance tax
http://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/property-news/news/mint-it-milibands

-tax havens used by Labour and Tory donors

- HMRC using tax efficient methods

- companies like Amazon and Starbucks setting up head office off shore
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/Politics/article1519471.ece

I agree that Labour could be opening a can of worms as many of these things happened on their watch. I also think it's a really difficult issue to tackle and tax advisers/lawyers will always be one step ahead of government/HMRC

[venator]

This deal, involving the sale of 600 State owned buildings must have been approved at a very high level - GB would have known about it.

[nescio]

Venator,
on a pedantic note, it should be
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes

[venator]

You're right, nescio. It's 57 years since I did O Level Latin. In those days the exam included translation into Latin, of course - kids these days have it too easy.

[venator]

In case anyone missed this...