The problem we (and I mean we, as part of the country) will have on cracking down on tax avoidance is that the UK Tax Laws and Tax System are incredibly complicated (having been built upon and jiggered about with for many decades).
My friend is a tax partner at one of the Big 4 accountancy firms, and his (and his department's) job is to find legal ways for companies to mitigate/lessen their tax - unless Government vastly simplify the taxation regime, and/or make all new legislation retroactive (which is against natural justice, for one would be being tried/found guilty of something that wasn't illegal when the transaction was committed), I am not sure how they will reduce tax avoidance.
---------- Post added at 15:06 ---------- Previous post was at 15:04 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
The problem with 'cracking down' on tax avoidance is, tax avoidance is a deliberate part of our system of Government. The Government uses tax avoidance to modify social behaviour - most notably, restricting consumption of booze and fags by making it more expensive, restricting the number of gas-guzzling cars on the road by making fuel and road tax more expensive. People avoid those taxes, perfectly legally, by considering other behaviours that do not incur that cost.
If we're specifically talking about cracking down on avoidance, rather than evasion, exactly what sort of avoidance is good, and what is bad?
|
As Chris states, we could all be guilty of tax avoidance - for instance, I now mostly use public transport to get to work, thus avoiding the tax on the petrol I don't use, and I also avoid the tax on the cigarettes I don't smoke.....