The second myth of British politics is that austerity was the only correct response to the high-living of the New Labour boom. That was always opposed by some of us – now it is exploded with each new tax investigation. Drawing in part on data from last year’s Panama Papers and the HSBC files leaked in 2015, Zucman recently co-published a study that found wealthy Britons have stashed about £300bn – equivalent to 15% of our GDP – in offshore tax havens.
Three hundred billion quid would more than cover our entire education budget for the rest of this decade and into the 2020s. Or, if you prefer, it is the equivalent of £350m being paid into the NHS every week for the next 16 years. Instead, it is funnelled offshore and used to buy yachts and mansions and other baubles – tax efficiently, of course.
£300 billion is not the amount of tax which would be due on £300 billion now, is it?
Twat.
It is the income from £300 billion which would be subject to an annual levy. Say, at 5% (a good return in this low interest rate world), some £15 billion. Of which what, 50% should be tax? So, £7.5 billion.
At which point we’ve got to ask well, what tax was paid? As far as we know, from the Panama Papers and that look at David Cameron and his father’s offshore etc, the tax due was in fact paid. Similarly, from the Swiss bank thing we found that the vast majority of accounts were either paying tax due or didn’t owe any as the holders weren’t UK resident (or perhaps were non-doms).
That is, weirdly, presently we don’t know what the “tax loss” is or was, we’re not even sure there is one and any reasonable estimation of what it could be is small.
Chakrabortty also claims that Ashcroft promised to give up non-dom status on taking vermine. That’s not how I recall it – does anyone else? – rather, that he would become resident. Which he did as far as I recall. Not understanding that distinction is one of those things that shows a paucity of knowledge about the tax system.
Chakrabortty is a socialist. Socialists believe that if there is money sitting in a bank account somewhere, then it is not being used for any noble productive purpose and therefore should be seized and spent on intelligent and noble social enterprises, such as bribing the plebs with more public services, providing swish grace and favour apartments in London for Socialist leaders and providing travel funds for fact finding missions to five star hotels in Mexico.
No comments allowed on the Tox Dadger’s various Paradise articles today.
Why would that be?
At least Ashcroft got his ermine by fairly moral means.
He didn’t get it by authoring a tissue of lies to “prove” there was no anti-semitism in the Labour Party. Said proof was obtained by ignoring the many and varied instances that would contradict the desired conclusion.
Let us also consider the question of degree.
I doubt the man on the Clapham omnibus is concerned about Ashcrofts’ billions.
But there would be many such who would be angry that someone could get £300 a day just for blatantly lying.
Three hundred billion quid would more than cover our entire education budget for the rest of this decade and into the 2020s
Didn’t someone say that the BBC pension fund is invested in one of these tax havens? So he wants to steal the BBC pension fund and blow it on teacher’s salaries and glossy new buildings?
Go on, DO IT!!
Can we assume that the Guardian is arguing against any form of overseas investment by UK citizens?
No comments allowed on the Tox Dadger’s various Paradise articles today.
I assume they couldn’t get enough mods in to handle blocking all of the people mentioning the fact they are funded from the sale of a magazine through a tax haven to avoid tax?
The hypocrisy of this entire campaign is staggering. Do they really think they will get away with it? I think they will.
It is inconceivable to me that a national newspaper (albeit it is the Manchester Guardian) could publish such drivel. Where was the editorship and oversight review for basic common sense?
Frankly it smacks of irretrievable incompetence or, perhaps worse, wilful misrepresentation.
Really should the Press Complaints people not review this pile of steaming dog’s do?
There will be more and more of this shite.
Dumber people from worse schools blasted every fucking day with leftist shite from the BBC/MSM.
Purge and Close (the bbc). Purge and Close.
There was some idiot blonde BBC woman with a northern accent yesterday morning saying that these are monies which “could” be used by governments to pay for schools, hospitals, and infrastructure. As could the money in her own bank account, I suppose.
Is Chakrabortty paid to tell lies or does he just do it spontaneously? With Guardian hacks it’s so hard to be sure.
Domicile is just 19th century sophistry used to squeeze tax from the wealthy who decided they would rather retire to the Caribbean and other such places without inheritance tax to prevent the Inland Revenue from seizing their hard earned cash.
The scam of “You were born British, therefore you will die British so cough up” is just a scam, but a rather long lived one.
As for being able to give up your domicile, this is a damnably hard thing to do and even harder to prove. It used to be that you could just file a DOM1 form with the Inland Revenue and they would make an assessment as to whether you were UK domiciled or not, but this facility was withdrawn years ago.
Time for both the entire concept of domicile to be removed from the record books, especially since it has become just an excuse for Russian thugs and oligarchs to invade Londinium.
“The second myth of British politics is that austerity was the only correct response to the high-living of the New Labour boom.”
“Austerity” in its current form is close to the correct thing to do. Not “response”. About the only things I’d like more money spent on is roads and practical education (training nurses, C&G courses). A lot of what has been cut has been things we don’t need lots of any more (e.g. libraries)
£300bn is less than half what the UK state pisses up the wall every year, so even if they got their grubby mitts on every penny, its not going to last very long is it? Less than 6 months. Then its gone. Fucking woop-di-doo. What then?
BraveFart said
“It is inconceivable to me that a national newspaper (albeit it is the Manchester Guardian) could publish such drivel.
The Manchester Guardian was a decent free-market liberal newspaper founded by cotton traders. It vigorously opposed tariffs, unions and the Attlee government (particularly the NHS).
Its decline into a left-wing agitprop rag can be pretty much traced back to the period between 1959 when it dropped Manchester from its title and 1964 when it moved to London.