Re: Tax havens exposed in huge law firm leak
 

Arthur one suspects there are some politicians from all political parties who are probably not paying their full whack of tax so this is a problem that not just affects the party of government but is across all political divides one suspects and the same sentiment applies to parts of society as well as it ain't just the rich who fiddle their taxes as its also one suspects some people down the lower social ladder as well who fiddle their taxes as well.

Re: Tax havens exposed in huge law firm leak
 

Well, since it is in the The Register of Members' Financial Interests, I would imagine so...

http://www.publications.parliament.u...eron_david.htm

Re: Tax havens exposed in huge law firm leak
 

But you wouldn't know that you were hiding your cash alongside theirs since the offshore financial sector is somewhat secretive. The organization you use to do it through isn't going to tell you :dunce:

Re: Tax havens exposed in huge law firm leak
 

Oh what, you think it's a majority of decent honest people that become these organisations customers then

Re: Tax havens exposed in huge law firm leak
 

Lots of Self employment tax fiddling happens.

http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/c...case-1-5731343

This guy here was a 'hero' for taxi drivers in the North East. Everyone knew him, just see the only comment on the article. This is only one case, I'm not exaggerating when I say this bloke has helped hundreds of Taxi drives fiddle their books. This incident caused a massive mess for the bloke that had to take over. He actually failed to report any of the discrepancies though and just had people rectify their books rather than bring them up on it. Thus setting the company on the straight but failing to actually report the countless dodgy returns he had in his possession.

Source: Article, Family owned taxi company in Tyne & Wear and actually seen the guy on numerous occasions in his own office in Sunderland regarding his dodgy advice to drivers about Taxi plates from Berwick being cheaper than the ones in Sunderland but somehow valid in Sunderland which continuously caused problems, the guy is a con artist. I've done work for the Bewick guy listed in there too but had no idea he was dodging tax. I knew about the SIA discrepancies though, wouldn't be the first or last. I have plenty of stories about the utter crap that actually went on regarding the 2012 Olympics and G4S, SIA Discrepancies at so many companies and how the likes of Bewick ended up getting paid a fortune for the 2012 Olympics too. Not the topic though but what happened at Stadiums and Arena's around the UK was conveniently swept under the rug. If anyone's interested, under this Doshi bloke I'd give you a figure of about 7/10 Taxi drivers in Sunderland fiddling their books with him. How does one come to such a figure? They're very open about it, almost bragging about it. I'm no accountant and luckily I'm PAYE taxed and always have been but I have heard one of the methods they're told to use, again someone else will need to shed light on what they're actually doing. It involves filling up at the end of the shift but doing it twice? Fueling > Stop > Pay and get receipt > Properly fill up. I think that's what I got told anyway. Something involving two receipts or filling up twice.

So in summary you're not wrong but in a lot of cases, they go a lot further than just tax dodging in some workplaces. In my industry I've seen pages ripped out of SIA logbooks (Illegal) Black people, yep just the black lads told to pull a 48 hour shift. I could swear they've fiddled with payslips and tax too. Way past that now though into something completely legit and well paying.

Re: Tax havens exposed in huge law firm leak
 

Re: Tax havens exposed in huge law firm leak
 

I'm saying that someone who uses one of these offshore entities won't know if they are using the same one as Putin or Assad. In addition, are these entities illegal? You may not like tax avoidance but it is legal. Are they doing anything illegal? :confused:

Re: Tax havens exposed in huge law firm leak
 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27372841

To sum up the differences between tax avoidance and tax evasion.

Re: Tax havens exposed in huge law firm leak
 

That's the distinction a lot of people miss. This tax avoidance, whether done by an individual or organisation is legal, whether it is morally right or morally wrong. As such, the people doing it won't go to jail for doing it, purely because you cannot be jailed for doing something that is legal.

They do need to close whatever loopholes in the law that allow this kind of act to be legal, but bearing in mind the people doing this can probably afford better lawyers than the government can (these lawyers do find loopholes faster than they can be closed), and bearing in mind that they are frequently taking advantage of loopholes in the laws of many countries, or even international law, it's going to take the Government time to close any loopholes.

I am not excusing anyone, or saying tax avoidance is right. It is not.

Re: Tax havens exposed in huge law firm leak
 

I'm not going to defend evasion or indeed avoidance which deliberately pushes at the boundaries or what's legal however I wonder how many people wouldn't do exactly the same thing if they were in the position to do so. In my experience wealth doesn't make people happier to pay tax and it doesn't matter whether they're from a aristocratic/privileged background or lottery winners from a council estate. Tax evasion is rife, the only differences are scale and the means by which it's done - undeclared cash in hand or off shore tax havens.

Re: Tax havens exposed in huge law firm leak
 

If you stopped and thought about it for a second you'd know and yes 80% of the time aggressive tax avoidance is found to be not legal in court, makes me chuckle having this discussion, I await with baited breath for someone to come along and compare it to having an isa like usual

Re: Tax havens exposed in huge law firm leak
 

tbf, most of the "aggressive tax avoidance" schemes which are found illegal tend to be on-shore, rather than off-shore.

http://www.professionaladviser.com/p...n-hmrcs-sights

However, HMG and other governments are working together to stop BEPS http://www.oecd.org/tax/aggressive/

Re: Tax havens exposed in huge law firm leak
 

That's the whole point though ,at the time the loophole was used it was legal ,only after being challenged and a costly court battle is it decided that it was illegal .You really can't blame people for doing something that was legal

Re: Tax havens exposed in huge law firm leak
 

Yup, lots of things which were once legal have become illegal due, for example, to public pressure and subsequent changes in the rules or more stringent interpretation of them. The tax regime is an area in which 'legality' is being challenged and reviewed constantly and like all changes in the law, it takes time.

I notice Labour have been banging on about tax havens but I don't recall them sorting it out when they were in power either...

Re: Tax havens exposed in huge law firm leak
 

Seems George is now getting some awkward questions:

Panama Papers: George Osborne evades questions about family's tax affairs as David Cameron comes under more pressure