Taxing Matters

As the screws turn on the organised tax avoidance in the UK - I thought I'd have my say on the subject.

In recent days I've heard various people say that there's no such thing as moral duty on people to pay their taxes - and that all anyone is required to do is to operate within the strict limits of the law.

In which case, so this story goes - anything goes so long as people can find a smart lawyer or accountant to come up with tax saving schemes - commonly known as tax loopholes - that don't break the letter of the law.

Such critics go on to argue that everyday, ordinary folk do exactly the same thing - when they buy an ISA, for example - which is a government sponsored saving scheme and means that the ISA saver doesn't pay tax.

Hence we're all tax avoiders - goes this clever but entirely cynical argument.

Because the difference here is that an ISA is a scheme which has neen approved by the tax authorities - HM Customs & Revenue - and such schemes are commonplace because they encourage particular forms of behaviour - such as saving for the future.

In much the same way as people's pension benefits are untaxed - for example. 

But there's a world of difference between paying into a pension scheme - and embarking on a completely contrived tax avoidance scheme - like the off-shore one used by the comedian Jimmy Carr which had no real purpose other than to help him pay his taxes at a rate of only 1%.  

Or take the biggest tax avoidance scam in Scotland in recent years - the practice whereby Rangers Football Club paid many of its top players and senior officials in 'loans' rather than  salaries - since the latter would normally be subject to tax and National Insurance contributions.

Yet the loans provided by Rangers FC never had to be repaid - and that doesn't sound like any loan I've ever heard of before - and I've been around the track once or twice.

Now whether the Rangers scheme was within the law or not - is a matter that's being battled out in court - but I think there is a moral issue at stake here as well.

Because even reasonably minded Rangers fans would agree - I hope - that a loan that never has to be repaid is not really a loan at all.

So the people who indulged in these highly organised 'tax scams' - including the likes of Jimmy Carr - should be thoroughly ashamed of their behaviour.