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Old 13-05-2014, 19:06   #1203
martyh
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Re: The state benefits system mega-thread. Many merged.

Quote:
Originally Posted by RichardCoulter View Post
The Gary Barlow tax avoidance case has put things into perspective. According to Channel 5 this morning:

Each year, tax avoidance costs the UK economy £69.9 billion pounds.

Each year benefit fraud costs the UK economy £5.2 billion pounds.

Try and guess which is covered more in the newspapers, has it's own free hotline to report wrongdoers, has numerous television programmes made about it etc etc...
How the hell can tax avoidance cost the country anything ?it is money that the treasury is not entitled to .Tax evasion is money the treasury is entitled to so that costs the country around £5.1billion .I would also doubt those figures because HMRC say the entire tax gap which includes evasion,avoidance,smuggling,fraud and errors stands at £35billion(11-12 tax year),specifically avoidance "costs" around £4billion through avoidance schemes some of which will be ruled illegible and some will be allowed
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