No To Retro Tax – Campaign Against Section 58 Finance Act 2008

[OnYourBikeGB]

You must be reading different papers to me then. Amazon, Starbucks and Jimmy Carr may have a different opinion on the way that the press will see this.

No, exactly the same ones. And none of the above have had a whisper about retrospection. My point is that retrospection tips the balance. There's been outcries, yes, but for the loopholes to be closed. Retrospection applied to a legal arrangement I believe would be seen by many as crossing the line. Hence tabloids won't get the mileage, and partly because there's an injustice if it's applied only to fairly ordinary individuals and not celebrities / multi-nationals.

Incidentally, I was queued out the door at Starbucks on Saturday, online shopping with Amazon is soaring and Jimmy Carr and Gary Barlow are playing to sold out audiences. Public outrage, eh? Go figure.

[Disgusted of Coventry]

...
Whether thats true or not is irrelevant - tabloids rarely let facts get in the way of a good story.
...

Would s58 even be newsworthy nowadays? Last year we were bombarded with stories about tax-avoidance, often involving spectacular amounts of money.

If anything, you'd want to know why HMRC squandered so much creative energy on doing little more than bankrupting a group of ordinary people. Where's the large-scale fiscal logic in that?

[BrilloPad]

Would s58 even be newsworthy nowadays?

Not at the moment - but HMRC lies might be newsworthy one day.

[Richard Splash]

That is as close to the truth as we have seen throughout this sorry mess. Compromise becomes the key word. Gauke's head on a plate won't happen and should not be a target. The information presented to MPs is extremely compelling and probably accounts for the favourable feedback from MPs that attended.

Repealing s58 would leave the tabloids shouting about Tories letting off tax avoiders, even though under HMRC's own definition we fall into the category of tax planning.

Sorry Enigma but replealing s58 could be seen/spun as governments first step into bringing back a greater level of certainty into a tax system that was, and still is, a convoluted and over complicated mess of a system. Thanks for that one Gordie - you just couldn't keep your meddling fingers out of other peoples jobs could you!

[Disgusted of Coventry]

Not at the moment - but HMRC lies might be newsworthy one day.

...and whether bonus-schemes had anything to do with it.

[portseven]

...and whether bonus-schemes had anything to do with it.

Now theirs a thought wonder if there is link between some the timing of our 'friends' actions and any bonuses they may have got for their roles in HMRC. Whats the right question to ask via FOI?

[travellingknob]

Now theirs a thought wonder if there is link between some the timing of our 'friends' actions and any bonuses they may have got for their roles in HMRC. Whats the right question to ask via FOI?

Whats the total value of bonuses paid to members of HMRCs special investigations units for each of the last 26 years. That takes us back to the start of this retrospection i believe.

[Slobbo]

What next

What is next? This was a good result but what happens next?

[WhatEver]

Whats the total value of bonuses paid to members of HMRCs special investigations units for each of the last 26 years. That takes us back to the start of this retrospection i believe.

£200m?

[SantaClaus]

Although it seems like it sometimes, tabloids dont run the country.

No, but Rupert Murdoch has tea with David Cameron