Reply to: Is there something immoral about this ;-)

[moggy]

Quite simply not true. There were loads of places to eat offering every sort of food from Thai and Indian to Roast Dinners. It's interesting to see that this was written before the Olympics when many people were in Olympic bashing mode.

As for the people who came from just about every country on earth to visit the UK for a couple of weeks to work at the Olympics, can you imagine the logistics of trying to collect income tax from them? Reciprocal tax agreements, different trading structures, sponsorship deals. Bloody hell, I wouldn't even know where to start.

They will all pay VAT on their purchases in the UK so that's about as good as it's going to get. You can't realistically have the host country taxing all these people for working for a couple of weeks in a country they may never visit again.

Yes, there was a potential tax loss. It's part of the cost of hosting the Olympics, get over it.

Agreed and the queue outside of Mc'Ds lead me to eat elsewhere.

As usual most of the negative stuff was written well before the olympics started.

Instead of showing the mood of the nation as they were supposed to, they simply described the mood of the news room.

[Wanderer]

McDonald's which will be operating its biggest ever store close to the Olympic park has a near monopoly on food outlets

Quite simply not true. There were loads of places to eat offering every sort of food from Thai and Indian to Roast Dinners. It's interesting to see that this was written before the Olympics when many people were in Olympic bashing mode.

As for the people who came from just about every country on earth to visit the UK for a couple of weeks to work at the Olympics, can you imagine the logistics of trying to collect income tax from them? Reciprocal tax agreements, different trading structures, sponsorship deals. Bloody hell, I wouldn't even know where to start.

They will all pay VAT on their purchases in the UK so that's about as good as it's going to get. You can't realistically have the host country taxing all these people for working for a couple of weeks in a country they may never visit again.

Yes, there was a potential tax loss. It's part of the cost of hosting the Olympics, get over it.

[d000hg]

A light hearted comment that you seem to have taken too seriously but then there is always one

What about contractor's not operating through a Ltd?

Oh I'm sorry I mistook this for the serious forum.

You can call it light-hearted ignorance but it's still ignorance.

[Sockpuppet]

A light hearted comment that you seem to have taken too seriously but then there is always one

What about contractor's not operating through a Ltd?

They can claim other tax reliefs not open to other "normal" employees.

[BenDover]

HMRC give EVERY SINGLE contractor working through a Ltd a tax break, by reducing the CT rate ~5%. Similarly they give tax breaks to small companies in regard to NI, etc.

It's much more fun to just shout things without knowing the facts though...

A light hearted comment that you seem to have taken too seriously but then there is always one

What about contractor's not operating through a Ltd?

[BolshieBastard]

HMRC give EVERY SINGLE contractor working through a Ltd a tax break, by reducing the CT rate ~5%. Similarly they give tax breaks to small companies in regard to NI, etc.

It's much more fun to just shout things without knowing the facts though...

Every single (your emphasis) contractor? You sure about that?

[d000hg]

Will HMRC give me a tax break then and I will promise to help stimulate the economy!!

HMRC give EVERY SINGLE contractor working through a Ltd a tax break, by reducing the CT rate ~5%. Similarly they give tax breaks to small companies in regard to NI, etc.

It's much more fun to just shout things without knowing the facts though...

[BenDover]

Never trust such a one sided source



Pretty much like every time I go abroad to work for a few weeks, doesn't make them tax resident.



Except that most of that money has already been spent before 2008 and it was mostly spent in the UK so a help to stimulate the economy.

Will HMRC give me a tax break then and I will promise to help stimulate the economy!!

[Sockpuppet]

The Great Olympic tax swindle | Blog | False Economy

Never trust such a one sided source

"The HMRC ruling also exempts the thousands of foreign nationals working on the Games here in the UK from paying income tax and includes everyone from journalists and judges to the athletes themselves."

Pretty much like every time I go abroad to work for a few weeks, doesn't make them tax resident.

"LOCOG and the Olympics team have a serious case to answer in allowing the Park to become a temporary tax haven and so does the Government which has managed to find around £11 billion to fund the Games while at the same time imposing severe economic austerity on normal working people."

Except that most of that money has already been spent before 2008 and it was mostly spent in the UK so a help to stimulate the economy.

[BenDover]

Not so much 'common practice' but more a case of "The IOC insists on it". You want to bid, you need to offer tax breaks.

Sponsors urged to waive Olympic tax breaks worth tens of millions - Other events - Olympics - The Independent

(Paragraph 6)

Paragraph 7 is interesting;

HMRC said British taxpayers were not losing out because London would not have won the bid to host the Games without meeting the committee's demands.

Does this not amount to nothing short of blackmail? I thought the British government had a policy about not giving in to the demands of blackmail? Maybe that's only when life is at stake!!

[Nathan SJD Accountancy]

Not so much 'common practice' but more a case of "The IOC insists on it". You want to bid, you need to offer tax breaks.

Sponsors urged to waive Olympic tax breaks worth tens of millions - Other events - Olympics - The Independent

(Paragraph 6)

One rule for one.... 'HMRC said British taxpayers were not losing out because London would not have won the bid to host the Games without meeting the committee's demands.'

Its is madness how they justify it.

[captainham]

Hmmm... If I had to guess, maybe its 'common practice' when bidding to give tax breaks.

Not so much 'common practice' but more a case of "The IOC insists on it". You want to bid, you need to offer tax breaks.

Sponsors urged to waive Olympic tax breaks worth tens of millions - Other events - Olympics - The Independent

(Paragraph 6)

[BenDover]

Hmmm... If I had to guess, maybe its 'common practice' when bidding to give tax breaks.

Does this mean the IOC are using tax avoidance? Is that not "Morally repugnant?"

[Nathan SJD Accountancy]

I have no answer to that but the point I am trying to raise is that, why should the UK have to offer a tax break in order for them to ensure a successful bid? Not only that but they are about to offer the very same for the 2014 Commonwealth games?

Hmmm... If I had to guess, maybe its 'common practice' when bidding to give tax breaks.

[geoff from contracta IOM]

Surely the sponsors had to pay a massive amount to be sponsors though? Did they avoid £1m in tax but have to pay £2m to be a sponsor for example?

But the 2m would be deductible as an operating expense so they get double the benefit !