An Organised Scam

I like Harry Redknapp - the plain-speaking manager of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club has a down to earth personality - and talks a lot of common sense.

But Harry appeared in court yesterday over charges of tax evasion - specifically that £190,000 was paid into foreign bank accounts while Harry was in charge at Portsmouth FC - in a effort to avoid paying tax and national insurance in the UK.

Now it will be a few weeks before we know whether football's cheeky chappy is judged to be guilty or now - though one thing is for sure.

Organised tax avoidance is a widespread scam in the world of football - with star players, owners and managers - often setting up off-shore companies and banking arrangements.

Which means - of course - that they pay a tiny percentage of their film-star salaries in tax.

So a 40% or now 50% tax rate isn't the problem - the real problem is that so many people these days channel their funds into fancy tax avoidance schemes - and so end up paying marginal tax rates of only 2% or 3%.

In fact it's not just a problem in the UK - it's rife everywhere - Mitt Romney who is currently fighting for the Republican nomination to stand as President of America - admitted the other day that the rate of tax on his earnings was less than that of an office cleaner.

And this racket has been going on for years - and years.

So you would think that all the political parties would come together and agree - that enough is enough.

Maybe the Labour party might pick the issue up in a constructive way - without turning it into a political football - if you'll pardon the unintended pun.

Although that would require Labour to explain why the party did nothing about organised tax avoidance - while in government for 13 years.

Here's what I had to say on the subject - back in November 2011.

A Taxing Problem (November 21st 2011)


When I was down in London last week - I visited the anti-capitalist protest camp at St Paul's Cathedral.

I must have been less well turned out than normal - because an earnest young chap came along and asked if I would fill in a survey form - to explain why I had joined the protest.

I answered that I was just passing by and we had a thoroughly pleasant chat - about what brought him and his friends to St Paul's - but I came away believing that they were just having a laugh.

Serious minded and well intentioned as they are - the protesters are a mixture of alternative lifestyle drop-outs, full-time political agitators and some others - whom life has not smiled upon too kindly.

But they have no idea what they're about - in terms of trying to engage with the wider public - many of them don't have jobs and have no interest in working - as far as I could tell.

So they don't pay taxes or make any other kind of contribution to society - other than to appoint themselves as the spokespeople for the 99% - whom allegedly hate greedy bankers and capitalists.

Now I'm the first to admit that I hate greedy bankers and greedy capitalists - but I hate greedy politicians too - and I hate double-plus-extra-good the useless, incompetent and dishonest ones - some of whom pretended to be running the country - before the economy went up in smoke.

But hating nameless greedy bankers 'does not a movement make' - instead it's just a small rabble camping out and having a good time - before the bad weather sets in and everyone gets fed up and sends them on their way.

What I want to know is - what do they want, when do they want it and - more to the point - how are they going to get it?

Me - I'm less put out by nameless greedy bankers.

Because we've nationalised and own most of the banks these days - so what exactly is there to gain from beating up the Royal Bank of Scotland, for example?

Far better than empty slogans about banks and bankers - the country should be turning its attention to the widespread use of tax avoidance - as a way of replenishing the public coffers.

It's not just the bankers and politicians who have been getting away with murder for years - the fact is that professional football clubs engage in what amounts to organised tax avoidance schemes - for all their major stars.

Which mean that start players - like Wayne Rooney - hand over only a small percentage of their earnings in income tax - unlike most ordinary working people - because their clubs pay their 'salaries' into tax-avoiding-trusts.

Rangers Football Club is currently fighting an HM Customs & Revenue million back tax bill for £49 million - and Scottish football is small beer compared to England's Premier League.

And football is probably small beer compared to what goes on - in the wider business world.

So why not focus on the huge amount of organised tax avoidance in the UK - along with other measures to make the world a better fairer place?

The protesters at St Paul's don't represent ordinary people who go to work every day - people who pay their fair share of taxes - which support public services and a civilised society.

If the trade unions became less about the vested interests of their members - and dropped the 'what we have we hold mentality' - then the unions could become a real movement for change.

But at the moment there is no inspiring leadership.

Everyone is in favour of higher taxes - so long as someone else pays them.

Just as everyone is in favour of cutting public spending - so long as someone or something else faces the chop.

How many trade union leaders or senior public sector workers have you heard say - 'I agree, final salary pension schemes are a disgrace - they favour the better-off and represent a tax on lower paid workers'.

None - and that's part of the problem.