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Originally Posted by Stop It
So you support legal highs then?
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That is not even close to being a valid comparison .Beer ,wine, coffee are all legal highs,Cannabis is getting ever closer to being legal ,the point is that legislation changes and evolves as society changes and evolves .
The biggest problem that HMRC have is that past court cases have set precedents that cannot simply be ignored .The government has spent a lot of time setting up GAAR legislation to counteract these precedents set by courts
such as these judgements
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“My Lords, the highest authorities have always recognised that the
subject is entitled so to arrange his affairs as not to attract taxes
imposed by the Crown, so far as he can do so within the law, and that
he may legitimately claim the advantage of any express terms or of
any omissions that he can find in his favour in taxing Acts. In so
doing, he neither comes under liability nor incurs blame.”
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Quote:
“Every man is entitled if he can to order his affairs so that the tax
attracted under the appropriate Act is less than it otherwise would be.
If he succeeds in ordering them so as to secure this result, then,
however unappreciative the Commissioners of Inland Revenue or his
fellow taxpayers may be of his ingenuity, he cannot be compelled to
pay an increased tax.”
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Quote:
“No man in this country is under the smallest obligation, moral or
other, so as to arrange his legal relations to his business or to his
property as to enable the Inland Revenue to put the largest possible
shovel into his stores. The Inland Revenue is not slow – and quite
rightly – to take every advantage which is open to it under the taxing
statutes for the purpose of depleting the taxpayer’s pocket. And the
taxpayer is, in like manner, entitled to be astute to prevent, so far as
he honestly can, the depletion of his means by the Inland Revenue.”
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These judgements have been used for over 70 yrs and only recently have the GAAR regulations set them aside
A worthwhile read