why are we letting this happen

[swallowthree]

Barclays £1.6 bn tax dodging, Boots stashing its cash in a Swiss bank account to avoid tax, Phillip Green using his wife for tax avoidance - while services for the most vulnerable are being cut and benefits squeezed. Why are we all letting this happen ?

What do you suggest?

I dont think letting comes into it. None of these corporations have technically broken the law and until our law makers and government tighten up it will continue.

Yes im intrigued into what we can do about this ?

OK - our government is allowing this to happen.

Ok, what would you like them to do about it?

UK Uncut have been organising protests in Boots, Vodaphone, Top Shop and Barclays - I think more of the same and more lobbying, letting our MPs, policy makers know how disgusted people are feeling.

Change the loop holes that allow this to happen.

our tax code is the most complicated in the world apparently and needs to be rewritten from scratch if we wish to prevent examples like the ones cited above. Its the sort of thing that SHOULD happen but in reality, the process of doing it would a) be extremely expensive b) run into all sorts of issues with political and financial interest groups who would agitate for things that would benefit their sector / voters etc.

hide all your spare cash under your beds

i've invested in clothes from boden

Why are we letting this happen?

Because we are not like currently news worthy Arab countries. We have heavily botoxed stiff upper lips.

When students for example people demonstrate, people moan a lot complain.

Trixie 123 I agree that it is mainly financial interest groups and the political parties they fund blocking change. But political parties are most interested in power and we are the people who allow them such power. Time to put a stop to this abuse.

Also, lack of shame has let this happen. As for that, what we can do is to call people publicly on bad behaviour - although not necessarily in an aggressive way, as shameless people seem to find it quite easy to deflect aggression (using their own aggression, if course). However, it should be doable: after all, what kind of parents are we if we can't keep our cool faced with bad behaviour?

Well since people voted Tory, we dont really have much choice eh?

Forests and libraries showing that we do actually have some influence. Even Tory voters must have some sense of morality and some must be equally disgusted by the banks and tax dodgers. Time to show your faces.

Here's what I did on a bus once, when some kid (about 15yo) was playing his radio over the speakers.

1. Asked him to please put in headphones. He said no headphones.

2. In that case, I said, please turn it off.

3. This developed into a bit of an argument about who had the right: was it his right to make us listen to his music (which was crap, and all staticky, anyway), or ours not to listen to it?

4. After that reached a standstill (he wasn't very good at arguing, but refused quite well. no-one else had said a word), I told him I was going to just talk to him so he couldn't hear his music. The bus was about to reach its terminus (a majaor railway station), so neither of us had much to lose.

5. He got off at the next stop (which was the stop before the end).

Now, I inconvenienced him a little, but not a lot, so he wasn't going to get violent about it. It was, however, a really nice victory, and pretty easy to implement. A bit annoying that no-one else on the bus said anything, but maybe they did, the next time. And I hope the kid thought about the amount of face he was going to lose if he pushed someone else.

Perhaps we should all write letters to Philip Green et al., telling them they ought to be ashamed of themselves. Without threats, the police will just be amused to read them!

If Boots had to pay more in tax, they would have to raise the prices of their products to make up the difference.

Would you rather directly pay more whilst shopping or indirectly let them use the law to their advantage?

If they couldn't avoid tax, companies wouldn't register here (this is related to EU law...freedom of establishment and to provide services etc) and there would be a decline in innovation.

In short, this country would be in worse straits.

[P.S. Have you ever not declared something at Customs? That's a fiscal barrier]

I would prefer honest trading.They would still make heaps of money without dodging tax, we have a huge population of relatively affluent people that they can make money out of. A slightly smaller heap but a heap none the less.

swallowthree - what extra taxes do you pay that you don't need to?

Do you actively throw surplus contributions into the HMRC coffers?

No?

Then why do you expect anyone else to do the same????

Pension funds are one way to make an impact. They are the ones who buy listed companies like Boots, and they are they ones who reward shitty, cost-cutting behaviour, as it boosts profits.

OP, what do you mean when you say "Barclays £1.6bn tax dodging"? From recent news, I know there was a kerfuffle about how little corporation tax they paid compared with their total profits but that was based upon a extremely inaccurate article in the Guardian which was seized upon by others who were either too stupid to look beyond the headline or was a convenient excuse to back up their "belief" despite the article being full of more holes than a sieve.

Most of the time, business taxation is complicated and with truly global companies like Barclays, HSBC etc you can't simply unilaterally up the tax or they'll just leave. Now I know a lot of muppets will say "good riddance, I hate bankers..they've ruined the country blah blah" but given they pay around 10% of the total tax taken in the country, its not a sector we can afford to easily lose. Not unless you want to see MORE VAT, MORE income tax etc to replace the lost revenue.

Barclays paid so little corporation tax because they made thumping losses last year which they can offset against this year's profits. It would be the same for your local butcher - or anyone who sets up a business.

Swallowthree There is plenty of anger around, it hasn't totally crystallised yet, but local protests and the work of UK Uncut give me plenty of hope- not everything is going unresisted, thankfully.

It's their money, not the government's. I fully support their tax avoidance and anyone with any sense would do the same - I do it but obviously to a much lesser extent. If businesses are taxed less they can employ more people and why should bankers get picked up because they have bonuses? Envy politics.

Oh Christ ukuncut? biggest bunch of violent idiots around, fortunately not smart enough to do anything that will actually harm the country (any more than it already is by the Labour government)