[ianch99]

Originally Posted by Stuart

There is a marked difference, I don't know how much you own or earn, so I could be way off, but I suspect the tax you pay each year amounts to maybe a few thousand pounds. Maybe in the low tens of thousands. A lot for you, but not a lot in terms of Government expenditure. So, if you evaded tax, the government would lose maybe half the annual salary of a junior teacher.

The amount of tax that would be owed by some of the people on that list had they not evaded it would be in the high hundreds of millions.. Certainly enough to pay for (say) several schools or a hospital to be built.

This is one reason people get angry. Another is that there is an increasing perception that the Government is favouring the rich (and in particular, the super rich) while making those who aren't rich feel the effects of austerity more severely and claiming "we are all in this together". There may be some truth to this, as it does seem that the Government is doing little to fight tax evasion, actively reducing taxes for the rich who do pay their taxes, and paying for these cuts in tax by cutting services and benefits for the poor.

Another reason is an increasing perception that they are being soft on the wealthy. There may be some truth in this as well. Look at Google. They potentially owe billions of pounds in tax, yet the government negotiated with them, and proudly boasted of getting hundreds of millions of pounds. If you or I held back our taxes, then attempted to negotiate with the government, we'd be in court and possibly bankrupted within the month.

Very well put