This whole tax avoidance business....

[scooterscot]

The scale has actually surprised me. Not so much the monetary value but rather the ilk involved. From the Lewis Hamilton chappy (for what possible reason could you want to avoid paying VAT when you've so much disposable income) to the Monarch employing wizards to hide money off-shore. The Guardian press are probably doing their best to delete their own name in the files..

The scale of avoidance is hundreds fold the government's austerity program on the working classes.

If you think Corbyn is not getting in in the next election... think again. Do any of you remember the son of a tax dodger David Camoron shouting at Corbyn across the despatch box "for heaven's sake man just go!"

[NigelJK]

So just remind me again of what these 'chappies' have done wrong?

A POS corporate tax would be far more efficient than trying to squeeze a few £M from pressurising law abiding tax payers via the meedya 'avoidance' message.

[Pip in a Poke]

The scale has actually surprised me. Not so much the monetary value but rather the ilk involved. From the Lewis Hamilton chappy (for what possible reason could you want to avoid paying VAT when you've so much disposable income) to the Monarch employing wizards to hide money off-shore. The Guardian press are probably doing their best to delete their own name in the files..

The scale of avoidance is hundreds fold the government's austerity program on the working classes.

If you think Corbyn is not getting in in the next election... think again. Do any of you remember the son of a tax dodger David Camoron shouting at Corbyn across the despatch box "for heaven's sake man just go!"

Yeah? And in other news the Pope is Catholic, apparently

[Mordac]

The scale has actually surprised me. Not so much the monetary value but rather the ilk involved. From the Lewis Hamilton chappy (for what possible reason could you want to avoid paying VAT when you've so much disposable income) to the Monarch employing wizards to hide money off-shore. The Guardian press are probably doing their best to delete their own name in the files..

The scale of avoidance is hundreds fold the government's austerity program on the working classes.

If you think Corbyn is not getting in in the next election... think again. Do any of you remember the son of a tax dodger David Camoron shouting at Corbyn across the despatch box "for heaven's sake man just go!"

The opportunity to obtain a £3.3m VAT refund perfectly legally probably had quite a lot to do with it. Anyway, it's not him, it's his Company. I'm sure I don't need to explain the difference between a Company transaction and a Personal transaction to the congregation. You really are a moron disguised as a cretin Scooty...

[sasguru]

So just remind me again of what these 'chappies' have done wrong?

It's not what they have done wrong, it's what they are perceived to have done wrong.
You Brexit/Trump types invented the "post-truth" campaign, where any lies repeated often enough are taken as truth by the cretins that infest the population.
So you should not complain when the same tactics are used against you by the far left.
There is no doubt that Corbyn is going to win the next election.
But the delicious irony is that the right will have put him there, by their own extremism.

[scooterscot]

So just remind me again of what these 'chappies' have done wrong?

Got love the working classes defending the upper echelons of society. Got to wonder what the end goal is in that line of thinking

[scooterscot]

The opportunity to obtain a £3.3m VAT refund perfectly legally probably had quite a lot to do with it. Anyway, it's not him, it's his Company. .

That's no defence. Not morally or legally if it turns out his jet saw more private use than business.

Did IR35 teach you nothing? It was my company me laud, not me, honest.. I knew nothing.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

So just remind me again of what these 'chappies' have done wrong?

Legally nothing (in most cases anyway). But does that really matter in the eyes of the public?

Everyone practices legal and "acceptable" tax avoidance to some extent - putting money into a pension, ISA etc. The reason that people get worked up about this sort of thing as they see it as a "one rule for them, one rule for us" sort of thing. Many of these tax loopholes are only taken advantage of by the ultra rich who can afford to pay accountants to set these convoluted schemes up.

I'm not judging anyone who takes legal steps to minimise their tax bill but that doesn't mean I can't see how bad it looks either.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

The opportunity to obtain a £3.3m VAT refund perfectly legally probably had quite a lot to do with it. Anyway, it's not him, it's his Company. I'm sure I don't need to explain the difference between a Company transaction and a Personal transaction to the congregation.

From what I've read, the VAT refund is highly suspect. Being VAT registered is not the sole requirement for recovering input VAT on a purchase. The purchase needs to be related to making taxable supplies. In other words, if there isn't a valid business reason for the purchase the VAT is not reclaimable. If there is a mix of personal and business purposes then the VAT reclaim should be restricted. If Hamilton always intended to make use of the jet in a private capacity a third of the time, then only 2/3 of the VAT should have been recovered.

Do you think he's been paying any tax on the BIK for his company giving him free use of the jet?

[Mordac]

That's no defence. Not morally or legally if it turns out his jet saw more private use than business.

Did IR35 teach you nothing? It was my company me laud, not me, honest.. I knew nothing.

Is there any way of proving he didn't pay his Company to use the jet privately? I'm sure he didn't, I certainly wouldn't, but if you can't prove something then we have to presume innocence. And you can stick the morality argument where the sun doesn't shine. You're starting to sound like Polly Toynbee, whose take on this I can't wait to read, laced as it will be with hypocrisy of the finest order.