Not sure what annoys me the most.
Apple’s lack of tax paying OR the bullshit “it’s nothing illegal” “we pay the most tax of any company” bollocks.
It is NOT RIGHT that they pay only around 3% of profits as tax - the sheer fact that they can do that helps to drive further monopolisation and globalisation.
Any innovative company that tries to take them on is immediately at a competitive disadvantage - Apple could pay 20% of their revenues in marketing alone to fight off a competitor that has to pay normal tax.
The SYSTEM is wrong, the SYSTEM is corrupt.
And guess what, the system was created by Politicians again, and we have seen time and again that the only thing Politicians en masse worries about is themselves, not the community
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The extreme left and right will use this, as they always do, I can’t blame, the City of London will have a hand in this no doubt, I can not wait until those leaches depart, pay your correct amount of tax, don’t avoid it and do what is morally right for society, the one that you profit from.
If these companies, dependancies and islands that otherwise would be sand waiting for a storm want to be a part of society they have to pay their share regardless of conduit arguments, morally redundant and snake behaviour.
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Watching the reports last night it was easy to forget, as the blood boiled, that these people have done nothing legally wrong. Morally however it all stinks. Would we do the same if presented with the same set of circumstances? Possibly. Thing is these loopholes are there to be exploited and they need to be closed. Easier said than done granted, but as long as loopholes exist there will be accountants taking advantages for their clients, for that is their job. I didnt used to have a problem with people making lots of money and enjoying it, but as the gap between the super rich and the poor gets bigger and bigger, I have a big problem with it. Especially as they have the means to keep more of their massive fortunes at the expense of contributing towards the society that gave them the means to get super rich in the first place. Watching that twat from Apple say that they were paying their taxes made me want to stick my iphone up his arse.
Tax avoidance / evasion is completely endemic throughout society
You have the mega corps utilising convoluted ownership structures
You have the mega rich using offshore tax havens to avoid tax
The bullshit non-dom status
You have the false self-employment status of the gig economy, avoiding Ers and Ees Ni contributions (amongst other things)
You have professional contractors organising themselves as limited companies to utilise a lower tax band through dividends when they are, for intents and purposes, employees
You have people working cash in hand
And we criticise the Greeks??
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Indeed, the sooner those leeching bankers leave the City and take their wealth with them to a place where we can no longer attempt to control their activities, the better off we’ll all be.
The taxi drivers, office staff, waiters, cleaners and security men who rely on the City for their income will take a massive hit, but fuck em - they can work in food banks instead.
The bankers need strictly regulating, not evicting.
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Agree with having to hammer out the loopholes. Problem is the tax code is so complex that by taking steps to shut down one, creates opportunities elsewhere.
Great example was the film partnerships - a really good idea to boost the UK film industry, until one bright spark accountant thought that this was a bloody good way of sheltering gains, and everyone poured into it.
The government intoduced an measure to encourage micro businesses to employ people by waiving the first £2k of Employers NI. Thank you very much said the professional contractors who promptly trousered an additional £2k a year for doing f all. and dont get me started on fixed rate VAT accounting.
Simplify the system
Have one rate and one personal allowance
Treat all income the same be it gains or income, earned or investment
And sort out once and for all the global corps. If they take the piss out of corporation tax by artificially supressing their profits, then find another way ie tax sales in the country of the recipient of that good or service, not where the company has decided to base itself.
The more simple you make it the harder it is to avoid
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The “moral maze”…many years ago I took early severence from my occupation. I paid tax on the large lump sum but comparing it with others who had done the same, it seemed I was the beneficiary of several thousands in an Tax Office cock-up.
What to do?
In the end to placate a guilty conscience I took the figures to the local Tax Office and asked them to go over the figures again. They examined them and said, as far as they understood the regulations the figures were correct.
I took the money and invested it in Premium Bonds. In the event that the Tax Office finally realised the mistake and asked for their money it would be at hand to satisfy them. The statutory 7 years passed and they never asked for it.
Who was right? Were my actions morally defensible? Had I done all that could be reasonably expected of me? Had I participated in “Tax Avoidance”?
You fully declared your income and the tax office told you what to pay - you couldn’t get further from tax avoidance if you tried.
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I think you miss the point, if they were strictly regulated they’d leave as they would have to pay the correct amount of tax and not avoid it.
And having something rotten isn’t a reason for something to stay as it employs lower waged tax paying people, typical tory, trying to blackmail people with the threat of job losses while the boss pays little tax.
This Country is fucked, rotten, selfish and downright cuntish.
Indeed Barry, you have got me there - I am a typical sandal-wearing, snowflake Tory. 
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No just selfish, plain and simple, pay your fair share, be a patriot (that what these right wingers say dont they?) and yet they couldn’t give two shits for the Country, leeches and parasites.
The working man from the Country propping up London, fuck London and fuck the bankers, a drain on us all.
Scum like you make me physically sick!
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How do you know that they would leave? Most of them have families and well rooted lives here. Some might but do you really believe that the whole population of the City would just up sticks and go?
Well the ones who want to avoid paying tax would hence thats why there’re here, the ones that stayed would be ok, call it a litmus test of morals and societal belief.
Phil Collins said he would leave the country if the higher rate of tax was raised didnt he? So perhaps not all bad?
He may have done but I was in the pub the night some ridiculous chancellor of the exchequer raised the price of beer over 50 pence a pint and to a man they said were not paying that.
apart from one who has gone teatotal and a few that have passed on they are all paying well over that for a pint now.
Moral of the story is @sadoldgit dont believe everything you see or hear.
Tax avoidance is perfectly legal Bazza. Why do you call people engaged in a perfectly legal activity “leaches”.
I don’t know Ducky, but Barry’s already labelled me as a typical selfish Tory, so good luck with your appraisal…
Does Bazza go around the airport shouting “leaches” at people with their duty free bags?
This of course is the real scandal here, the fact that it is legal. The actors from the alleged comedy ‘Mrs Brown’s Boys’, sending their hundreds of thousands to bank accounts in Mauritius, then employing themselves as ‘financial consultants’, authorising loans to themselves and said hundreds of thousands sent back to their UK bank accounts. All without paying any tax. Greedy bastards, lower than a snakes belly. They will probably be appearing on Children in Need in a couple of weeks time, wringing their hands, imploring us all to dig deep and give money to all the poor deprived liddle children who are starving and are being left behind by the selfish richer nations. Well they will get short shrift here i’m afraid, Children in Need can fuck right off. It was disclosed earlier this year that Children in Need have been sitting on at least 100 million which they have in various portfolios and accounts, large sums invested in the arms trade and tobacco companies, thousands paid in ‘consultancy fees’ to fund managers etc etc. Exactly the same with Comic Relief. People are making a good living on the backs of these so called ‘charities’, millions donated by well intentioned, but gullible members of the public are sloshing around in various accounts, doubtless more than a few offshore. This money has been there for years, not going to where it was intended by the gullible souls who donated it.
I see Bono’s name has predictably popped up in these latest disclosures, buying shopping malls in Lithuania via a dodgy company in Malta, all to save himself a few bob in tax. Meanwhile he will be travelling the globe in his private jet, pounding his chest, imploring us all to reduce our global footprints and give money to his approved charities. Makes you realise there just isn’t enough vomit in the world! Likewise his mate, Geldoff. The Boomtown Rats made a few quid but most of it went in paying back their record company advances. The rest of them are probably back in their day jobs. Not the Bobster though, within a few months of Live Aid he was buying TV stations, mansions in Chelsea, Priories in Kent etc etc. Horrible, hypocritcal bastards the pair of them. A close friend of mine back in the early 90s had various professional dealings with Geldoff, and he told me something that i have never forgotten. He said there are two types of people in the world, those who love Bob Geldoff, and those who have met him.
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