Tag Archives: tax

Jimmy Carr Apologies For Tax Avoidance.

Posted on by

Jimmy Carr paid £8.5 million in cash for his home. He has pulled out of the ‘tax avoidance scheme’ and has apologised. The comedian admitted he had ‘made a terrible error of judgment’

He also said his accountant told him the scheme was legal. Carr was one of thousands to use an off-shore scheme to pay as little as 1 per cent income tax. His credibility has been severely affected.

Prime Minister David Cameron branded his partaking in the scheme as ‘morally wrong’.

In a statement, the comedian insisted that he was told the scheme was ‘totally legal’. After intense public pressure he admitted he has withdrawn from the scheme.

A Downing Street spokesman said:

‘I think it is obviously welcome,’ a No 10 spokeswoman said.

‘HMRC are working hard to investigate the sort of scheme that Jimmy Carr had been reported to be involved in to ensure that they are not aggressively avoiding tax, and, if they are, they are closed down.’

The spokeswoman defended Mr Cameron’s to speak out against Mr Carr.

‘The Prime Minister was expressing what probably lots of people felt after reading the coverage,’ she said.

The revelations are worse as Carr has publicly mocked tax avoidance schemes.

Apparently Carr puts away £3.3million a year via the K2 tax scheme, which is used by more than 1,000 tax avoiders.

The government closes the loophole which allows VAT on small goods

Posted on by

The government have announced plans which will stop retailers avoiding paying VAT by procuring goods from the Channel Island. This oversight has been used more frequently by retailers selling CD’s and DVD’s online. This loophole was costing the government £140 million a year. Low Value Consignment Relief (LVCR) will not apply to goods sent from the Channel Island to the UK from the 1st April. LVCR set up for tax exemption purposes for goods coming from outside the European Union so that they could avoid paying small amounts of tax, as collecting it would cost the more.

Kevin Flood, the CEO of Shopow said, “There has been an unprecedented movement of demand from consumers for cheap goods such as CD’s and DVDs online, fuelled by the downturn in the economy and lagging disposable income. The closing of the VAT loophole could force British consumers to look further afield for cheap deals.”

Kevin adds, “The closing of the VAT loop hole is good news for traditional British high street retailers such as HMV and Waterstones, who have come under fierce pressure from Channel Island registered online retailers, whose sales models have been taking advantage of the loophole in the VAT rules to offer cut price goods to British consumers. The situation is not at all good however for the run of the mill British consumer, who will quite literally pay the price.”

Labour’s Debt Legacy

Posted on by

You (every UK household) will pay £2,128 in taxes this year just to cover interest debt repayments!

That’s not to pay off the debt, that’s just to cover the interest. That is Labour’s legacy.

The worst part is this amount is set to increase as the national debt continues to soar thanks to the estimated £146billion budget deficit this year (and that’s after the cuts)!

In 1997 Labour inherited a budget that was in balance and set to move into surplus. That is a budget deficit of £0. With the budget deficit moving to a surplus the Labour government wasted a valuable opportunity to pay off some of the UK’s debt.

It’s so infuriating that that £2128 in taxes we’re all paying today to cover interest debt repayments need not exist at all.

What the previous Labour government actually did was go on a massive spending spree with borrowed money. Government spending soared from £309billion in 1997 (40% of GDP) to £647 billion in 2010 (52% of GDP). The Labour government mortgaged Britain’s future to achieve political success in the short term. Ultimately their actions were profoundly irresponsible and selfish. ‘Weak politicians have bribed voters with endless amounts of borrowed cash’

The UK now owes over £31,000 for every person in employment!

See the debt bomb for an idea of the scale of the debt and how fast the debt it is increasing http://www.debtbombshell.com/

No one wants these cuts. But we need to except that we can’t spend more money than we have. If so much money wasn’t going on interest re-payments there would be no need for cuts. But the fact is Labour has created this debt and we can’t just ignore it.

Quite frankly it was sickening to watch Ed Milliband giving a speech to anti-cuts protestors, when it was his party who got us in this situation in the first place.

His attempts to link the anti-cuts protests to the anti-apartheid movement and the suffragettes were ridiculous if not offensive.

Let us not forget the lessons this has taught us. We all need to take a longer term view. Politicians but us voters as well. And there needs to be more transparency. Personally I found George Osborne’s recent budget much easier to follow than the old Brown ones.

The fact is the previous government spent money it didn’t have and now you have to pay it off. Let’s learn the lessons. Don’t let any government do it again.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/7495214/Budget-2010-Relentless-march-of-state-spending.html
http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/downchart_ukgs.php?year=1990_2011&state=UK&view=1&expand=&units=b&fy=2008&chart=F0-total&bar=1&stack=1&size=l&color=c&title=Overall%20Public%20Spending%20Chart
http://www.debtbombshell.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12830224
http://cluaran.free.fr/debt.html