Panama Papers
Panama Papers
Out of context: Reply #62
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- kingkong0
Tax avoidance is an expression of basic British freedoms. You may not like the principles set out by Lord Tomlin in the Inland Revenue’s case against the Duke of Westminster, but they are as fundamental as Magna Carta, and a good deal more useful to most of us (my italics):
"Every man is entitled, if he can, to arrange his affairs so that the tax attaching under the appropriate Acts is less than it otherwise would be. If he succeeds in ordering them so as to serve that result, then, however unappreciative the Commissioners of Inland Revenue or his fellow taxpayers may be of his ingenuity, he cannot be compelled to pay an increased tax."
- 'if he can' is the key there. I'm not sure the Duke was thinking about the rest of us when he brought the case.Fax_Benson
- Tomlin's focus was on IR trying to (unfairly) maximise payment owned... rather Duke's right to reduce tax liability.LukeO
- didn't it come about because he was trying to take his staff's wages off the books?Fax_Benson
- net result is - it's a universal right, especially if you can afford it.Fax_Benson
- < spot who's got money offshore.detritus
- and he's royalty, too. Bloody aristocracy.Fax_Benson