Tax avoidance: David Cameron focusing on the wrong people/organisations?

In 2009 Barclays paid just £113m in UK corporaton tax when it had £11.6bn of profits!

That's 1% tax paid, these huge businesses are the ones David Cameron should be focusing on but funnily enough he's very quiet about them and other banks.

Thoughts?

Source: ow.ly/bJeJ5

I think anyone who uses things like this to avoid tax is fair game. Why should people who earn millions get away with a 1% tax rate.

Jimmy Carr has spent the last few years making a nice living out of taking the p**s out of politicians for fiddling their expenses and taking their expense rules to the maximum, while all the time he was bending the tax rules to his own advantage. People in greenhouses etc.

When you get to the likes of Barclays I think there are other things to consider such as the number of jobs created, the amount of money flowing through the city etc. If they didnt get these tax breaks their business would go elsewhere and we would be worse off.

I can't remember the details on the Barclays example, but I do remember someone pointing out the flaws in the statistics...basically it wasn't comparing like with like, deliberately wrong calculations to make a headline.

I personally feel a little sorry for Jimmy Carr...he is just a human being like the rest of us, probably without too much tax knowledge.  His expert advisors make recommendations, which he follows, signing where he's told to and paying his fees.

It is hard for the government/HMRC to stop these schemes, as they can only control UK tax law, and most of these schemes revolve around various overseas activities.  Doesn't make them morally right, but it frustrates me when people tweet things like "why don't they just make that illegal"...it's not that simple.

Who is most to blame? The individual or business that engages professional help to legally minimise their tax bill, the individuals and companies that provide those services (some to a far greater extent than others), or HMRC and the government for allowing the loopholes to exist? 

People in Glass Houses?

The funny thing is, all the politicians are shouting from the roof tops about "tax avoidance" but in most cases they do this themselves, or have been caught in the expenses debacle.

If someone has enough money, they will do everything they can to avoid paying tax, it doesn't matter who they are or what they do.

I think it's funny that DC publically spun it on Jimmy Carr when companies such as Barclays and Vodafone do this, if they clamp down on the big boys, the little ones will fall into line IMHO.

Show me a person who does not want to pay the exceptionally high tax in the UK and I will show you a corpse!

The only way to stop this type of thing amoungst the ordinary people in the UK is to lower the tax rates and stop paying for services we neither want or can afford.

Cut Income tax to 10% and VAT to 10% and then see how much you have to spend.

Nice one Paul... let us know when and where you are standing and we'll come and vote for you ;-)

Vodafone avoided over 3,000 Jimmy Carrs worth of tax where was the moral outrage?

I'm no expert on this but isnt there a big difference between personal tax and corporate tax.

Corporate tax is subject to tax breaks etc because it can bring in investment and create jobs. As a result we have countries trying to offer the best tax breaks to encourage big business. Vodafone, Barclays etc bring loads of money and jobs in to the country. If Germany offered better deals they would no doubt base themselves there meaning we would miss out on the jobs and all the other taxes they pay (VAT, employees tax etc).

An individual should have no right to access better tax rates than anyone else just because they earn more money. In the case of Jimmy Carr for instance he was earning millions and paying little more tax than a nurse. Not exactly fair is it.

Fair enough, but looking at the flip side I wouldn't suggest it's fair punishing the rich for being successful either. 

The taxes in this country are astronomical and all successive Governments aim to do is stifle enterprise by playing robin hood - there's fair, then there's the real world. Capitalism, I would say, is based on self interest - like it or not, human nature is ultimately based on rational self interest, hence why it works ;) 

1 Taxes in this country are not particularly high internationally, dont believe the loony right wing propoganda.

2 Politicians make the rules, why do they complain when the rules are followed? Change the rules!

3 Why have the government sacked or retired so many good HMRC staff when thay should have nailed people like Vodaphone etc instead.

4 Why do comedians get the bad publicity when popstars and especially footballers have been doing this for year. Name me a Racing driver who lives in the UK.

@Gareth - I wouldnt like to see the rich taxed at a higher rate than me, I would like to see them taxed at the same rate. If they paid the same rate as us without jumping through hoops to avoid paying tax there wouldnt be a need for the higher tax rate. In fact we could probably afford to reduce the overall tax rate. After all its better for the country to tax 25% of their millions rather than 50% of nothing 

If it is true that the Government let Vodafone get away with a tax liability of over £7billion then you have to ask how HMRC are actually spending their time.

I see that HMRC are trying to put the frighteners on freelancers, again, by sending out letters to them using the new style IR35 quesionnaire. it will be a waste of money

If you look at the vodafone situation closer the reason they are able to write off so much against tax is as a result of the £22.5 billion they have already paid the government just to operate in this country. They are also about to pay the government billions more for their 4G licence.

You have to also consider the amount of VAT they collect for the government in the form of sales and phone bills. Then there is the amount of people they employ which means more tax collected in the form of income tax etc.

Not sure what that would achieve:

Revenue from income tax 2011-12 around £150bn + VAT £98bn = £248bn, which is less than half of 
Total tax receipts (incl NIC) £550bn .