Asphalt_World wrote:
Jimbox01 wrote:
Asphalt_World wrote:
These comments are what was said on two separate cases. Neither of the people involved broke any laws. It's the principle that's at stake here.
Cameron responding to questions about Philip Green who is an massive tax avoider (and donates hugely to the Tory party).
'I am not getting into an individual's tax affairs on air'
Cameron talking about Jimmy Carr who avoided UK tax by using an offshore company (and is certainly not a Tory).
'He's taking money and putting it into some very dodgy tax avoidance scheme.
Spot the difference.
With reference to the Philip Green quote, you do realise the BBC were forced to apologise for what John Humphreys said during that interview, don't you? Humphreys was pressuring Cameron to answer a question based on inaccurate and misleading information, and Cameron declined to answer. Green / Arcadia have been investigated by HMRC and according to them pay all taxes due in the UK - they don't have a problem with what he does.
Jimmy Carr on the other hand had already been investigated by HMRC and found guilty, and the scam he was using to avoid taxes was pretty crude and obvious anyway.
However, I fully understand the points you're trying to make and don't necessarily entirely disagree, but all your example really achieves is to highlight what all politicians do - .i.e. score as many points as possible when ever possible, and evade answering difficult direct questions when ever possible.
So, what specifically did Cameron say in the past that now makes him an even bigger hypocrite than he probably already was?
He has continually spoken about the immoral way in which people earn money in the UK yet invest it offshore to avoid paying much tax on it, certainly not tax that the UK, the country the money was earn't in benefits from. I am not saying this is illegal, just pointing out his point of view. Despite this personal view of his, he is happy to invest in
his fathers company which was doing everything he tells us he disagrees with and then spends 4 days avoiding the inevitable admission that he had in fact done so. If he really believed what he did would not be a conflict on interest, why avoid saying it for 4 days?
The fact that Cameron's dad setup Blairmore Holdings has been in the public domain since 2012, so why has it only just become such a huge issue?
The Panama papers only confirmed what was already known, so who has a vested interest in discrediting him? Nothing to do with Brexit - surely!
Anyway, the fund Cameron's dad setup was based outside the UK which therefore meant it wasn't liable to pay UK tax on it's profits. It may or may not have invested in UK companies, but it's trading activities were conducted outside of the UK, so unlike Google etc. it wasn't channelling profits from the UK to an offshore company because it didn't operate in the UK in the first place - it was an offshore investment fund.
For investors, the fact that profits weren't taxable meant they'd get a better return than if they'd put their money into a UK based fund because there was more profit to reinvest, but they were still liable to tax when they cashed in their investment - as soon as money was paid out to an investor it was potentially liable to tax. I have no idea how Ian Cameron managed his private affairs but there is no evidence to suggest he, or anyone else involved in the fund, used it to avoid their personal tax liabilities.
These are the only quotes I can find by Cameron that could suggest hypocrisy - but only where transparency is involved.
Quote:
“If you want to arrange your tax affairs so you support your pension, you plan effectively for your family, that is one thing, and that is acceptable,” he said. “But frankly some of these schemes where people are parking huge amounts of money offshore and taking loans back just to minimise their tax rates, it is not morally acceptable. It isn’t morally right to do that.”
Cameron's letter calling for more transparency about tax information and the ownership of companies was sent to leaders in Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Anguilla, Montserrat, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
Quote:
"I respect your right to be lower tax jurisdictions. I believe passionately in lower taxes as a vital driver of growth and prosperity for all.
"But lower taxes are only sustainable if what is owed is actually paid – and if the rules to achieve this are set and enforced fairly to create a level playing field right across the world. There is no point in dealing with tax evasion in one country if the problem is simply displaced to another."
"Put simply, that means we need to know who really owns and controls each and every company,"
Jimmy Carr, among many others, had money paid into an offshore trust in lieu of salary (or dividends?) and then received interest free loans which were never paid back. This is an obvious scam designed specifically to avoid tax and national insurance and not even remotely similar to the activities of Blairmore and similar funds.
Obviously I could be wrong about all of this, but to me at least it looks very much like the Brexit MP's and media have done a hatchet job on Cameron. If it was such a big deal, then why didn't it explode four years ago when the news first came out?
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
(unless we're talking about the strict definition of the word)
