If only Mrs. Phillip Green's wife would pay her taxes in the UK

[EggFriedRice]

I have read about Mrs.Phillip Green's wife who lives in Monaco, she is also the owner of Topshop in the UK and has been paid the biggest ever dividend in UK history, over £1 billion pounds, now what I fail to understand is why does she not live in the UK where her businesse's are located? why does she choose to live as a tax exile? Does this not lead many people to believe that she is deliberately trying to avoid paying UK tax? Yes of course we are not stupid, I have destroyed my Topshop card & will never buy another item from Topshop again, I think that Mr. & Mrs. Green are hypocrites, end of

Kerstina I am guessing you wouldn't praise anyone.

I have no reason to laud PG's charitable donations but he has set up a retail academy and donated millions to various charities and the promotion of business in schools. If that doesn't count as giving something back then I suspect your standards are too high to include anyone.

That's true huddspur - often for tax avoidance reasons, indeed.

Tax avoidance is often a reason, its also quite common in family-run businesses or where the owner of the business has chosen to retire and appointed directors to run it

for all we know she could be employing him to run the business, and paying him out of her dividends. He would then be paying UK tax on his salary.

I agree with the poster higher up who suggested that we should simply move into line with other EU countries and have a withholding tax.

Since it would not affect those resident in countries with a reciprocal agreement, it would only impact on people living in tax havens.

If I wasn't an English person who loves living in England, then yes, I probably would choose her way of thinking. And no, I'm not ashamed of that, what they are doing is legal.

Takver, good point and I see what you mean, but as I said, it's legal. Therfore its the government that makes the rules that should be critisised, not the individuals.

There are thousnads of companies where the owner is not the person who earns the money - do you really want to legistlate against that too?

As far as I am aware PG receives a salary for the work he does (presumably a fairly decent one since he has stated that he has paid £400million in personal tax in the past 5 years)

Tax planning / avoidance is not a moral question it is a legal one. The westminster case establishes that

Undoubtably there are unpalatable tax ideas out there but increasingly you can only avoid tax if the facts of a case match the tax treatment you are aiming for - most sham arrangements no longer work. Mrs green no doubt actually spends most of her time offshore. If she didn't that wld be evasion and illegal. People will always seek to reduce their tax bill, hence us having ISAa, offset mortgages, deducting expenses if we run our own businesses. It just seems worse when the numbers are bigger but the principle is the same. So, you either accept human nature or introduce a general anti avoidance rule and watch the businesses scarper from these shores to places like Ireland where the tax regime is deemed more friendly.

It is indeed legal - as is choosing to shop elsewhere. And, of course, writing to ones MP or otherwise doing whatever possible to encourage a more appropriate tax regime.

but there is a difference between legal and moral, and it is possible to decide that you are not going to chase every penny right up to the boundary of what is legal.
so it is perfectly reasonable to criticise people for deciding they will minimise their tax when they are super-rich and don't need the money.
It is not like you have a moral obligation to get and keep every penny you can, and don't have any choice in the matter.

Takver- Not having a withold tax on dividends is an attempt to boost competitiveness and encourage foreign direct investment into our economy. We are desperate for foreign investment at the moment so I don't think that make us less attractive to foreign investors is a good thing for the economy at the moment.

I'm also preety sure that we would not be allowed to put a withold tax on dividends going to other EU member states.

pretty

this country's tax system is absurd. If, for example the tax rate was 30% if you earn 20K you pay 6k (notwithstanding allowances). If you you earn 100k you pay 30K, ie, at the same rate of tax higher earners pay a great deal more than lower earners. I can think of no good reason whatsoever why rates of tax increase with earnings and for as long as they do if I were mega rich I would avoid paying tax as much as possible.

If every UK business operated the same way as Arcadia the UK would be bankrupt by now, end of imo

The directors of a company have a legal duty to maximise profits - that duty is to the shareholders. I've seen companies take on planning because to not do it cld breach this fiduciary duty. What the shareholders then do with their share of the profits, normally dividends , is up to them. Which is where we came in.

you can think of no good reason why rates of tax increase with earnings?

what about the fact that if you are a low earner taking away a small amount of money will have much more of a negative impact on your quality of life than taking a much larger amount away from high earners will? Taxing people more who are going to suffer least through that taxation seems like a pretty good principle to me.

"If you you earn 100k you pay 30K, ie, at the same rate of tax higher earners pay a great deal more than lower earners" I'm not sure I understand your point.

onceamai- If everyone paid the same amount of tax regardless of income (which you seem to advocating) then the Government wouldn't be able to finance anything

Huddspur - I think onceamai is.trying to make.a.flat tax argument but left most of it out

Companies are not there to pay tax - they are there to make money for their owners.

We like companies being here rather than somewhere else because we can tax them and they provide employment, which is what people want as well as giving those people an income we can tax. Therefore we want to encourage companies to come here, stay here and pay tax here. If we fuck them about too much they won't.

Tax avoidance is not illegal, or immoral. Tax evasion is both.

In the case of Philip Green it's bad PR though.

Oh FGS.

'Companies are not there to pay tax.'

What on earth are you talking about?

Hiding this thread.

She is saying that the main objective of a company is not to pay tax but to make profit.

hudspur - yes, no withholding tax can be charged on EU dividends, but Mrs Philip Green is resident in Monaco which is not part of the EU.

Further the withholding tax can be reduced to zero or 5% etc when it is being paid to a country we have a treaty with. Most other countries have dividend withholding tax.

However there wouldn't be a treaty with a tax haven. Withholding tax on dividends seek to ensure that those living in tax havens are subject to tax in the country of origin.

I think that between them they employ enough Brits who pay tax, and they must pay tax on their employees too.

In their position I would do the same.