I don't know about you all, but as a self employed person, I employ a tax professionals services.
I have been employed, earning less than I do now and giving about 1/3 of my income up as direct tax.
Self employed its about 10%. Is this morally repugnant? Not from where I sit.
And it was even better when I was trading as a LTD.

PAYE is the bitch.

Exactly.

Someone was moaning about Carr on FB earlier so I asked them "If an accountant said they could save you money by allowing you to pay less tax and it would be completely legal would you turn them down?"

We'd all do the same if we had the chance.


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I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?q4ljmy

You haven't heard the gay rumours then? I don't know either way - he's a great dancer though

So gay lol

clickly

Precisely
I'm really struggling to understand what all the fuss is about other than envy .......

The difference for me personally is Carr taking the piss out of Harry Redknapp and God knows who else for avoiding tax, though I don't have any problem with people doing it legally and declaring it where required. I've always said we should end the loopholes, schemes and sweetheart deals though.

Fair point, don't throw stones etc

You could say it's all about envy.
The point I think is however that it appears to be easier to avoid tax the more money an individual has by, for example, employing the services or tax expert & accountant.
Should it be legal for someone with £1m to avoid proportionally more tax than someone with £10k?

Legal tax avoidance has its place - an ISA is a perfect example as its open to all (many can be opened with as little as £1) and there is a limit as to how much can be saved. It encourages people to save but won't diddle (legitimately) out of so much money that it could pay off the national debt so is arguably a good thing.
If you're going to allow individuals to legitimately avoid tax then any such scheme should be available on an equal footing should it not?
Creating a tax system that's so complex that you require the services of an expert to decipher them locks out those on lower incomes from taking advantage of what they should be able to save. But then, that's how they like it.

Chris Hoy:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18564187

Just watching last night's eight out of ten cats and they're all taking the piss out of jimmy Carr. They're all self employed, so they'll be on some sort of tax avoidance scheme. The thing that he was wrong about was the hypocrisy of making gags about tax avoidance when he was doing it himself, but none of them are mentioning it, they're just going on about the fact that he's avoided tax, which I'd be very surprised they all haven't done.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18658241

The Mail were always gonna go after Boyle. I wonder what his 'legal reasons' were. At the end of the day it all appears to have been legal, so the question is rather or not we grasp the nettle and start talking about a flat rate etc.