Forget Sunak's seatbelt, what about Zahawi's taxes?

[noblegiraffe]

Our former Chancellor, it would seem, is only able to say that he has paid his taxes in full, because he realised the gig was up, he'd been caught and went to HMRC to sort it out.

And the reason it hasn't been a bigger story is that the litigious Mr Zahawi hired a firm of lawyers to send off threatening letters to anyone investigating, stating, untruthfully, that these letters had to remain confidential.

Calculations suggest that if he had to pay £3.7 million in back-taxes, this would imply £27 million in undeclared income, representing about a 1/4 of his net worth. This, therefore, is not small change, or a tiny oversight.

The timeline of events is worth reading, here www.taxpolicy.org.uk/2023/01/19/zahawi_story/

Not sure what the fine is for not wearing a seatbelt, but Zahawi had to pay a 30% penalty on his unpaid taxes, meaning that his claims that his taxes were filed and paid correctly is untrue.

He was Chancellor of the Exchequer while this was going on.

No wonder he was so supportive of Boris, going as far as to say teachers should remain impartial when discussing lawbreaking politicians

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4480290-Teachers-should-remain-impartial-on-matters-of-lawbreaking-by-politicians-says-Zahawi

Of course whether his tax-dodging is illegal depends on whether it counts as tax avoidance or tax evasion. No idea on that front, given how easily the rich seem to get away with this stuff.

Haha 😂 That's obviously what the Daily Mail think. Their top story is DWP (alleged) benefit cheats.

If Ken Dodd was alive he would claim unfair treatment.

Mr Zahawi should face a criminal charge. And be suspended from his ministerial position pending the court case.

Oh, I'm livid.

The minimum I expect from my politicians is honesty plus reasonable competence.

Sunak forgetting seatbelt.
Zahawi forgetting to pay tax.
Hunt forgetting to declare interest in properties.
Hancock forgetting to not snog his mistress.
Johnson, where to start...

Lies. Corruption. Errors of judgement. Sleaze.

So sick of it.

The minimum I expect from my politicians is honesty plus reasonable competence.

You were joking surely. Biggest bunch of crooks going. Avoiding taxes is the norm, in the time of MrsT there was a senior Tory found out to be paying less tax than most low paid workers while he managed a multi million pound organisation. It's the norm. Its us ordinary people pay taxes and find their lifestyles.

Yes this is huge issue.

Personally Im not bothered if someone didn't wear a seatbelt or had some beers with colleges during lockdown but this? I'm pissed off.

Setting up a 'fast Lane' so your mates businesses' can get government contracts?
Delaying Russian sanctions until your mates have sold or moved their assets?
Tax evasion?
Why are these dodgy people still in charge of anything?!?

No, not joking. Actually I expect a great deal more than just honesty and competence. Professionalism, clarity, foresight and hindsight, common sense, compassion...

Clearly the current government are falling well short.

Yet I work every day with people who have the listed qualities. The country is not short of decent people. But none of them are in positions of power.

So it looks like he deliberately avoided tax but his excuse is incompetence. And we are supposed to think that's OK?

Yep

Incompetence = carelessness

It's disgraceful and if he had any shred of integrity, he'd resign. What a self serving shower of b*ds! It makes my blood boil as a public sector worker scrapping for bits from the table.

Unbelievable that he was the ACTUAL CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER of the UK whilst trying to get out of paying his taxes. Wow, just wow. I wonder how hard HMRC negotiated with him???!! Certainly an unusual position he put them in. The last few years have just been stunningly poor and corrupt in government. Shock and disgust hardly covers it.

Yes, Peston is commenting on the unprecedented issue of the Chancellor negotiating with HMRC about his unpaid tax and how inappropriate this was.

twitter.com/peston/status/1616823010433851393?s=61&t=HRApXL2aDjGMxPTyVqMrKA

I mean, he was barely Chancellor for 2 months, did he wait until he was in the top job so that he could put pressure on them?

If they finally follow up on past investigations such as Michael Cricks they can find a life time of such activity. For example he forged 2 signatures when supplying Tesco products that he didnt have a licence to sell. He was working for Jeffrey Archer at the time! Up to now everyone has been too scared to speak out. Hopefully finally now a few people will feel able. Dan is an extremely brave man and should get some award for his efforts.

Shock and disgust hardly covers it.

Disgusted, but sadly not shocked.

Wonder it it will be on Laura Kuenssburg's show tomorrow?

@EBearhug You are right, obviously.

If he really avoided paying tax on £27 million, why was he only fined and not imprisoned?

I’m fuming. He should be in prison.

I’m so sick of the Tories. I’m so fed up of them taking us all for idiots, pretending we can’t have a decent NHS, our kids can’t have a decent education, it’s all the fault of the people on benefits, those working in the public sector, trying to scrape a wage decent enough to live on, and the war in Ukraine. It’s not. It’s them. The lying, cheating, thieving, corrupt bastards.

Exactly!

As an aside, my father was a true blue tory and he lent Jeffrey some money in decades past. Good old Jeffrey never paid him back. Course he didn't!

The cover up in the media also shows why so much corruption continues. There must be so many people who could speak out.

I suspect Boris Becker is wondering the same thing.

These people are so bent they make me want to scream. Our politics has gone completely rotten under the Tories.

I used to think he wasn't as bad as others and had a bit of compassion about him, how stupid of me, he's a Tory.

There's a brilliant piece in The atones today by Dan Neidle who investigated - despite being warned off by NZ's lawyers.

The Times! Although the atones may be more fitting!

Where is the due diligence? Surely these people should be thoroughly screened before getting high office.