Law-Forums.org

[culley96]

The UK 's squeaky clean leader decided to name names in a protest against a tax evader whose actions were actually making use of a totally legal loophole.
Is there the remotest chance that he might ask some of his underlings to investigate the tax morality of some of his closest cronies?

[bergh39]

Get real! The stuck up, out of touch millionaire pig bastard posh boy will do all he can to protect his other stuck up, out of touch millionaire pig bastard posh boy colleagues!

[smid]

To your headline question, yes.

Tax evasion is a crime, tax avoidance is legal. HMRC are still considering whether K2 is evasion or avoidance. If they decide to prosecute anyone who has cheated the UK taxpayer in this way, Mr Carr as well as a number of donors to the Conservative party may find themselves in the slammer.

The problem arises because of a daft principle in English Law that there is no common law requirement to pay tax. Tax can only be imposed by Act of Parliament and is limited by the precise wording of the written law. There are people engaged full time looking for loopholes so that their rich clients can pay less tax and another group of people who dress in ridiculous clothes arguing out the merits of each word and punctuation mark in Court. We need a written constitution that includes a responsibility on each citizen to pay his tax as Parliament has intended. Mind you, that would put an awful lot of accountants and lawyers out of business and they'd have to join the ambulance chasing circus.

[nickson]

Defamation cases are still brought in the UK, but this is a notoriously complex area of the law which is tackled only by specialists. It is also a notoriously costly undertaking, so confined to people who can (a) afford the action, for which they will have to stump up very large fees, and (b) afford the risk of losing and having to pay the costs of the other side as well as their own.

As there is no doubt in this case that legal loopholes were used by the persons concerned and one of them at least has already expressed his embarrassment at being caught doing so, there is no defamation involved here. They were simply working the system to their advantage, as the law entitled them to do. This will, no doubt, be the conclusion drawn.

[oz]

Yes it is possible but in this particular case unlikely, as it will not be seen as defamation, if you mean Jimmy Carr, Bob Diamond could immediately file a much stronger case against Carr

Lived in Switzerland.

Then you are okay, you were merely avoiding Tax like Lewis (I'm British but I am not going to pay any Tax) Hamilton, not evading it.

Evasion is to deliberately find a way of not paying tax.

Avoidance is to look at legal ways of paying the least amount of tax possible.

[kienan]

The newspapers receive letters of claim for defamation every day, and pay thousands out every day to prevent them being taken to court.

That is why a lot of people think they can just write whatever they like, because the papers can do it, but the papers can afford to do it.

The only way I would agree with defamation law though, is if legal aid was available to defendants. It currently isn't and often defamation cases are settled simply because the defendant can't afford their own barrister, not because they were really lying about those they have "defamed."

People in the UK can't use defamation law, only rich people in the UK can use it, the law is open to everybody of course, just like the Aston Martin showroom.

[toryn34]

Not defamation any more - this is covered under the laws of libel and slander.

The chance of a politician coming clean approximates to zero.

[adalwine]

Morality and legality are two different issues. As previous answers have stated, there is a difference, in law between tax avoidance and tax evasion. Tax avoidance may be morally and ethically wrong (depending on how an individual feels about it) but tax evasion is legally wrong.

I don't like the fact that the mega-rich can employ high-powered accountants and lawyers to help them legally avoid tax - however, if these mega-rich people spend their earnings in this country then virtually everything they buy is subject to tax and they will pay over thousands in the form of VAT. The average man-in-the-street pays just a fraction in VAT compared to the mega-rich.
People on basic 20% PAYE tax rate don't usually have the earning capacity of the people that are in a position to avoid tax through legal means, and therefore they don't usually have the spending power that these people have. Spending massive amounts of money in this country helps to keep the economy afloat and helps to provide jobs.
I don't like the concept of tax avoidance being legal, but it has to be put into context and weighed up against spending capacity. If the rich want to spend their money in this country then we cannot afford to put them in a position where they go abroad to take advantage of lower tax rates. And remember that the rich tend to pay full rate National Insurance contributions, but they also have private heath care and so they don't actually use services such as the NHS, even though they have paid for it. They also tend to pay for private education etc.

[hyun-su]

Yes is the answer..

[gillivray5]

What Jimmy did is not illegal and has been going on for a very long time, he is ??, so they don't need to pamore than capable of looking after himself

BTW why do you think certain 'personalities' spend so much time out of the UK ??, so they only have to pay minimum tax.