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Anyone see 'The Money Programme' last night? It basically documented what we all know: the rich pay far less tax than the rest of us, and often pay nothing. This applies to both income and inheritance tax.

The biggest police operation of the year has been mounted to recover the ?53 million nicked the other week. High-street billionaire, Philip Green, paid precisely zero to The Revenue on his recent business dividend on which, had it been been taxed at the normal rate, he would have owed them somewhere in the region of ?220million.

The rich act like criminals but they do it all legally. 'No tax is due ', they scoff, 'so how can it be tax avoidance?' Of course they neglect to mention that they've spent hundreds of thousands on lawyers and accountants who can make sure that no tax is EVER due. All of the major firms involved in this style of accounting - KPMG, Deloitte, Price Waterhouse, Ernst & Young- declined to go on The Money Programme to discuss it. That stance speaks volumes. What they do may be legal, but right it ain't.

Green is lauded as a great business icon, instead of being condemned and ostracised as someone who steals from this country through legal means. Fuckers like him are denying the UK of millions upon millions of pounds, and yet they love to be seen at black-tie charity events. It makes me choke. There's a whole stratum of the super-rich, idolised Prem footballers among them, who are doing much the same. Meanwhile DHSS fraud prosecutions for peanuts' money continue to grow. Why? Because it's easy to nail the poor bastards. The rich ones just laugh in your face.

I'm apolitical. But this is just plain wrong. Not really anything to do with the colour of your politics.

Should go under the RIP-OFF Britain thread. The whole way this country is set up is FUCKED. It always has been !
VIVA La Revolution I say. A redistribution of wealth needs to occur ! Get rid of sponging royals and religion.
FUCK am I a commie ?

Read "Private Eye" and the ongoing saga of how the Inland Revenue sold off all their buildings to a "British" company that turned out to be registered in an overseas tax haven.

Mart

In the words of that famous guy, anon:

It's the same the whole world over
Ain't it all a fucking shame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
And the poor what gets the blame

"FUCK am I a commie ?"

Yes Dave, I think you are. We're ruled by global gangsters - only the like of Hugo Chavez and Dave Wells stand in their way.

What you forget is that Phils company pays 100's of millions in corporation tax. It also pays millions in staff NI payments.

The reason no tax on dividends is that Phils wife is resident in Monaco. So tax will be paid in Monaco at an agreed fee.

chatterji wrote:

Anyone see 'The Money Programme' last night? It basically documented that we all know: the rich pay far less tax than the rest of us, and often pay nothing. This applies to both income and inheritance tax.

The biggest police operation of the year has been mounted to recover the ?53 million nicked the other week. High-street billionaire, Philip Green, paid precisely zero to The Revenue on his recent business dividend on which, had it been been taxed at the normal rate, he would have owed them somewhere in the region of ?220million.

The rich act like criminals but they do it all legally. 'No tax is due ', they scoff, 'so how can it be tax avoidance?' Of course they neglect to mention that they've spent hundreds of thousands on lawyers and accountants who can make sure that no tax is EVER due. All of the major firms involved in this style of accounting - KPMG, Deloitte, Price Waterhouse, Ernst & Young- declined to go on The Money Programme to discuss it. That stance speaks volumes. What they do may be legal, but right it ain't.

Green is lauded as a great business icon, instead of being condemned and ostracised as someone who steals from this country through legal means. Fuckers like him are denying the UK of millions upon millions of pounds, and yet they love to be seen at black-tie charity events. It makes me choke. There's a whole stratum of the super-rich, idolised Prem footballers among them, who are doing much the same. Meanwhile DHSS fraud prosecutions for peanuts' money continue to grow. Why? Because it's easy to nail the poor bastards. The rich ones just laugh in your face.



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I, too, saw the programme and was bitterly disappointed in the way it was presented.

It was a perfect opportunity to show that a few people's tax avoidance was greater than all the fraud perpertrated by those claiming benefits to which they are not entitled. Don't get me wrong, they should be stopped too, but given the newspapers' love of "benefit cheat" stories so much, one wonders why in recent years only The Guardian has regularly written about the tax avoidance schemes of the super-rich, who are costing this country far more in lost revenues.

It also failed to put the figures in perspective. For instance, it would have been interesting to know how the ?270m (not ?220m you quoted) that Green avoided paying could have been spent... how many nurses would that help to pay for?