He is either a liar, a moron, or being badly misreported

[darmstadt]

And here we have a bunch of people who are highly paid who have a history of tax avoidance berating the chancellor and the rich for being party to it all The irony of it.
I thought Ken Livingstone was the only hypocrite until I read this thread.

Everyone is a hypocrite when it suits them...

[hyperD]

More evidence that the Tories are out of touch.

Don't blame me ..........

You are Ben Elton and I claim my five partisan pounds.

[BrilloPad]

UK shocked that George Osborne expects them to believe he’s shocked at millionaire tax avoiders

[AtW]

And here we have a bunch of people who are highly paid who have a history of tax avoidance berating the chancellor and the rich for being party to it all

Chancellor is berated for either being an idiot or a liar - probably both.

[IR35 Avoider]

I think we should thank the chancellor for alerting us to tax avoidance possibilities us minnows hadn't previously considered.

So if I set up an overseas charity (who presumably have no obligation to tell the UK government who they employ, what they pay them, and how they spend the rest of their money) then I can currently donate any amount of money to the charity, and that money won't be taxed in the UK?

To put it another way, there's nothing stopping me from creating my own personal financial black hole that will swallow all my taxable income and UK government has no way of knowing what becomes of it?

I get giddy just thinking about the possibilities....

More seriously I don't think the 25% limit is enough of a clamp-down, to be honest.

How about tax relief is only given via the charities themselves, who supply HMRC with a list of donors and donations, and any charity with fewer than 100 separate donors isn't eligible for tax relief?

The alternative would be only allowing approved charities to get tax relief, but that would be bureaucratic. Rather than whitelisting, allow popularity (number of different donors) to indicate which appear to be be genuine charities, then blacklist any of those you have a problem with.

[AtW]

There are lots of ways to solve it including pursueing people who used false charities for tax evasion which it would certainly be in this case.

Also making all tax returns public would be a good idea.

[doodab]

How about tax relief is only given via the charities themselves, who supply HMRC with a list of donors and donations, and any charity with fewer than 100 separate donors isn't eligible for tax relief?

The alternative would be only allowing approved charities to get tax relief, but that would be bureaucratic. Rather than whitelisting, allow popularity (number of different donors) to indicate which appear to be be genuine charities, then blacklist any of those you have a problem with.

The Contractors Benevolent Fund should pass with flying colours.

[DodgyAgent]

Why don't they simply tax rich people on over £250k at 20%. that way they wont bother employing complex tax avoidance vehicles and nor will they fart around with the amount of time they spend in the Uk. More tax will be raised - everyone's a winner!

[AtW]

Why don't they simply tax rich people on over £250k at 20%

Good idea.

Unfortunately some rich knuts would still prefer to pay 10% to an offshore firm to avoid paying any tax in UK.

[DodgyAgent]

Good idea.

Unfortunately some rich knuts would still prefer to pay 10% to an offshore firm to avoid paying any tax in UK.