Should Gary Barlow give back his OBE?

[Verity87]

For avoiding taxes?

I just heard a discussion about this on radio 4. People had less sympathy for Jimmy Carr I seem to remember...

No, he shouldn't. If people think its wrong then the law should be tightened up. Most people would minimise their tax bill if they could, and they thought what they were doing was legal. Esp if their financial advisor said it was fine.

Of course not, he's a Tory supporter, it wouldn't be done to suggest his behaviour was disgraceful.

No, he's raised millions and millions of pounds for charity and got the OBE for that. That still stands regardless of the bad advice he was given.

FWIW, I think the same about Jimmy Carr - they were given bad advice but believed it was legal.

I thought stripping of honours followed only after criminal conviction. Not for a tax tribunal finding against you.

I think when you become this famous you aren't really aware of tax and accountancy. Its normal to pay somebody to do this for you. I hope he's sacked his Financial advisor and/or accountant.

I think it was different for Jimmy Carr because of his many jibes at 'fat cat bankers' and their tax. Hoist by his own petard springs to mind.

I cannot recall Barlow building any part of his career on similar.

no he should keep the obe (outdated award anyway), but everytime he comes on the screen asking for charity cash/singing or whatever, we should all remember just how he much money he has and keep our money in our pockets. hes lost his credibility.

One person was making the argument that the charities he supports wouldn't need to exist if people did not try to avoid paying taxes. I thought she kind of had a point.

I don't think he should give back his OBE, but I do think he should pay the money. I do not believe he did not know what he was doing, and I don't think that if it did go to court it would be any defense to blame his accountant/financial adviser.

He isn't the only sleb to have done this, there are (allegedly) thousands of them, and from what I have read over the weekend he isn't the only one who has been honoured by the Queen!

The Spice Girls all did the same apparently. The of course there was Adele who famously whined about her tax bill.

One thing I would say though is that I don't understand the intense popularity of GB. He doesn't seem a particularly nice person and comes across as conceited and quite cold IMHO. So why is he treated like a national treasure?

One person was making the argument that the charities he supports wouldn't need to exist if people did not try to avoid paying taxes. I thought she kind of had a point.

Same could be said of all of us who pay taxes, if we paid more we wouldn't need charities.

And if you pay a financial advisor to give you advice, it very much is their fault if the advice they give you is illegal IMO, unless the scheme was obviously very dodgy.

The same could be said for us all. But the majority of us are not multi millionaires. I do think that very high earners should pay more tax than those who work equally hard and just earn a lot less.

" I do think that very high earners should pay more tax than those who work equally hard and just earn a lot less."

That's pretty much what already happens. In FY ending 2013, the top 1% earners paid 1/3 of all national income tax.

I think he should put out a statement saying he is sorry that would be a start.

Meditrina - but it's not what happens when people carefully try to avoid paying what they should via loopholes is it?