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Scroungers and Parasites

JohnD

JohnD

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Good to hear ... if anything comes of it.

"One in three of the richest people in Britain is under investigation by HM Revenue & Customs over nearly £2bn of potentially underpaid tax, the government’s spending watchdog said on Tuesday.

The inquiries mostly concern avoidance and the legal interpretation of complex tax issues, rather than evasion, according to a report by the National Audit Office.

It found that a specialist unit set up to scrutinise the tax affairs of the super-rich secured an extra £416m of tax in 2015-16, up from £200m in 2011-12. The unit examines the tax affairs of 6,500 of the wealthiest people in the UK, with assets of more than £20m."

https://www.ft.com/content/c64f210e-9f92-11e6-86d5-4e36b35c3550

I wonder if notorious tax-dodging billionaire and Conservative supporter, Lord Rothermere, chairman and controlling shareholder of the Daily Mail, is among them.
 
Are you implying that it should be:

"Users of Available Regulations Specifically Formulated for the Purpose of Avoiding Tax by the Wealthy and The Likes of Rothermere"
 
Well that would make a bit more sense, even if it is rather sensationalist. Desperately hanging on to your own money is the opposite of scrounging or parasitism.
 
11988218_992284350815696_8307280713304006259_n.jpg
 
Big difference between fraudulently not putting money into the system, and fraudulenlty taking money out of the system.
 
Tell us what that big difference is.

If I travel on a train without buying a £10 ticket, is that better or worse than taking £10 out of the till?
 
The difference is between tax avoidance, and tax evasion, not about paying for train tickets.

Tax avoidance is legal, whereas tax evasion isn't, but I think the worst scenario is the sweetheart deals that HMRC do with the likes of Starbucks

JohnD said:
I wonder if notorious tax-dodging billionaire and Conservative supporter, Lord Rothermere, chairman and controlling shareholder of the Daily Mail, is among them
Click to expand...

And I wonder how many tax dodging Labour supporters should have been included as well.
 
JohnD said:
If I travel on a train without buying a £10 ticket, is that better or worse than taking £10 out of the till?
Click to expand...
No, but if the rules were such that if you were wealthy enough to employ an expert then you did not have to pay rail fares then the only wrong thing would be the rules.
 
JohnD said:
If I travel on a train without buying a £10 ticket, is that better or worse than taking £10 out of the till?
Click to expand...
It's better because travelling doesn't cost the train company. Well, not unless you count the wear and tear on the carpets and the increase in fuel consumption, none of which amount to £10. Removing £10, on the other hand, is removing £10.

However, desperately hanging on to your money when it actually is owed to HMRC is not.
Click to expand...
Scrounging is to take from others, parasitism is to live off others. The super rich avoiding or evading tax is neither. They use fewer public services than anyone else (and they pay disproportionately more tax, when they actually cough up). If some salad dodger who occupies his local hospital's time, with ten kids in the local comp, avoids his little bit of tax, then he might reasonably be called a parasite. Someone who goes to a Harley Street doctor and sends his kids to Eton, pays £100k a year tax, but avoids the other £100k, is not; in fact he's a greater contributor than you are.
 
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Gerrydelasel said:
It's better because travelling doesn't cost the train company. Well, not unless you count the wear and tear on the carpets and the increase in fuel consumption, none of which amount to £10. Removing £10, on the other hand, is removing £10.
Click to expand...
So if I buy a ticket for £10, and then I steal the £10, you think that the train company is worse off than if I just travel without paying?

In what way?

Both I, and the train company, are in exactly the same position.
 
JohnD said:
So if I buy a ticket for £10, and then I steal the £10, you think that the train company is worse off than if I just travel without paying?
In what way?
Both I, and the train company, are in exactly the same position.
Click to expand...
Not worse off, it's the same; you get a free ride and the train company don't get your £10. In your first example you don't get a ride but you do steal £10 that the train company already had.
The analogy is invalid, however, since the super rich use far less than their fair share of public servces but do pay more than their fair share of tax -even allowing for the avoidance. Like EFL says, your argument should be with the rules that allow avoidance. Hate the sin...
 
As an employer with several PAYE staff on the books, I can often be found sat down with 'em, drinking tea from a mug, trying to explain to them how it is that they are the only ones paying any income tax in this country today.

In fact, me, Mario & Lukas very nearly wet ourselve's today when Dave 'the slave' (plaster boarder to the gentry) actually bragged that he was pulling £450 off my site & taking home £360 a WEEK.

I might even get rid of the weaklings & replace 'em with agency umbrella bods !
 
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