Do As He Says....and He Does ?

[bazwillrun]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/tax/11189430/Tony-Benns-inheritance-tax-dodge-how-it-works-and-how-you-can-use-it-too.html

sums the left and all their socialist ideological puke up really....

[Old_Geezer]

Surely avoiding tax you are not obliged to pay is common sense ? Or is it only allowed by the right wing sympathizers ?

I'll check the link later.

[Tilly2]

Give over, it says he used legitimate tax planning strategies. Just like you would.

[Quizmonster]

In what conceivable way can using "legitimate tax planning strategies" be described as a (quote) "dodge". If you're looking for "puke", you've found it right there in that sad Tory rag!

[youngmafbog]

Well, whenever a Tory does it or a successful company like amazon the left jump on it shouting from the roof tops.

Amazing when someone shouts from the roof tops about an arch socialist takes advantage then the left jump to his defence.

No, he has not commit ed a legal offence but in the eyes of you socialists surely a moral one. Or at least that is what you all bleat when the boot is on the other foot.

[andy-hughes]

I am right behind anyone who can use legitimate tax legislation to avoid paying tax - as Tony Benn has done.

If the government wants to bleat about it, they need to re-assess their own tax laws - which are there to be avoided, not broken, which is a different matter entirely.

[janbee]

Tax avoidance is legal and I totally support anyone able to do it. Tax EVASION on the other hand is a different matter. Mr Benn did nothing wrong.

[bazwillrun]

so you all have no problem when Mr Carr and others use/used legal schemes to avoid taxes.....yeah thought so.

I hear amazon et al are using legal methods to avoid tax also

Im sure youve read some of the comment at the end of the article...saves me typing out what a typical leftie socialist champagne socialist he was and others like him.....

I love to start the day with a good laugh

[jno]

I don't mind Amazon doing it. I do mind when ministers say how outrageous it is for Amazon to do it - since they could change the laws but won't.

But as long as you don't do it, because that would be socialist puke, wouldn't it?

[andy-hughes]

jno - "I don't mind Amazon doing it. I do mind when ministers say how outrageous it is for Amazon to do it - since they could change the laws but won't.

But as long as you don't do it, because that would be socialist puke, wouldn't it?"

Superb!

[Old_Geezer]

No i don't have a problem with Mr. Carr, personally, although I think some convoluted schemes are arguably over the limit. I guess controversy occurs when one is not following the spirit on the tax law, but even then it is the government's fault for providing a loophole and not closing it promptly when found.

[andy-hughes]

youngmafbog - "Well, whenever a Tory does it or a successful company like amazon the left jump on it shouting from the roof tops.

Amazing when someone shouts from the roof tops about an arch socialist takes advantage then the left jump to his defence.

No, he has not commit ed a legal offence but in the eyes of you socialists surely a moral one. Or at least that is what you all bleat when the boot is on the other foot."

Not I for one.

As far as I am concerned, any major company who manages to legitimately aid tax avoidance is serving its shareholders, as it should.

Similarly, any individual of whatever political persuasion who manages to avoid paying tax using appropriate legistlation has my backing.

I am many things, but a hypocrite is not one of them.

[Quizmonster]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18531008

"People work hard, they pay their taxes, they save up to go to one of his shows. They buy the tickets. He is taking the money from those tickets and he, as far as I can see, is putting all of that into some VERY DODGY tax avoiding schemes.” (My capitals)

The above were the words of David Cameron at the time of the Jimmy Carr hoo-haa. Not much doubt about what that noted right-winger, the Prime Minister, thought of it, is there, or was even he some sort of leftie ‘way back then?

[Peter Pedant]

Not that I am a great defender of the minister with 'the wild staring eyes'.


Living in the 'old house' raises problems adequately dealt with in the article. The issue is that you cant give the house away and go on living in it. The hurdle to be overcome is 'reservation of benefit' or 'interest in possession' and this was addressed by Tony paying a market rent to his kids apparently. London rents are NOT low.

He would have done this at the time the rule were more lax. Now you have to take into account 'pre owned assets'. In orders words selling the family home giving the ackers to the kids who then use a portion to buy a parent-flat - - now wont work. The parent flat will still count as part of the estate of the parent.

The difficulty for the Benn family ( ha ! ) is that the son of Viscount Stansgate ( that would be Tony Benn aka Anthony Wedgwood Benn ) married an independently rich American heiress. So that they had a lot of money to spend on tax avoidance.

You lot are limited to the advice I give here.

[ToraToraTora]

all left wing policies and tendencies are for "everyone else" not me!. That is why Labour can do things like abolish grammar schools and tell us how wonderful the local asbo acedemy is whilst sending their own kids to some posh academy. That is basically why communism/socialism cannot work. QED the Soviet union. That's why Arthur Sacrgill was drawing his full salary whilst leading his deluded followers off a cliff.

[Gromit]

Benn live in the UK and paid tax all his life.

Unlike Lord Ashcroft, the Conservative Deputy Chairman who was domicile to Belize to EVADE paying tax.

[Old_Geezer]

And right wing ones are "for those who can afford them, like me" ?

[ludwig]

Obviously when we or someone we like does it, it's referred to as 'legitimate tax planning strategies', otherwise we call it 'Tax avoidance'.

The problem is not that he did it - anyone normal would - but that he whinged about the immorality of it when he was alive.

The point of the OP is about hypocrisy.

[Peter Pedant]

// Surely avoiding tax you are not obliged to pay is common sense ? Or is it only allowed by the right wing sympathizers ? //

You are quite right Old Geezer

Lord Summerskill ( LJ ) in around 1962 - "every person is allowed to order his affairs to minimise the tax." Such a well known thing that when I asked a lawyer for the reference he said : 'o I dunno, everyone knows and agrees that.'

NZ - yeah OK we are not NZ - has GAAR - general anti avoidance rules and the UK govt is loking at that. GAAR allows the tax man to say " oh I didnt think of that but now you have -..... you can't "

What you cant do - which Jimmy Carr almost did and Tony Benn certainly did not, is set up a series of companies with transactions solely with the view to avoiding tax. Each transaction lawful but the chain may be held in a court as unlawful ( = evasion ).

One of the singers that got caught - set up a paper loss of £2.5m and then used all his record sales to off-set the loss. Hem hem the tax court said: O god you cant do that.... see above.

So how did Tony Benn do it ? Oh his wife set up a trust fund with her own money ( no inheritance there then ) in favour of the children. I thought everyone knew that

[ToraToraTora]

yes gromit but Tories are expected to be money grubbing. Socialism is "to each according to his needs from each according to his resources" ...err except me!

[Peter Pedant]

// Unlike Lord Ashcroft, the Conservative Deputy Chairman who was domicile to Belize to EVADE paying tax.//

the rules there are : honestly there are always rules governing these things - that he cant take money from the UK and say it is Belize income. Not an issue if it is company income - see Starbucks

and he is only allowed 183 d in this country....

in other words the tax man can deem he is 'ordinarily resident' in this country.....

and if it is lawful then it isnt EVASION