to ask the government to crack down on tax avoidance?

[worzelswife]

There are lots of benefits threads at the moment and a clear message emerging from them is that people want the government to find money by closing loopholes, etc. so that the vast amount of tax avoidance/evasion that happens currently has to stop, instead of benefits being cut and the poorest people targeted.

There are clearly billions that would be available to us as a country if this happened and the poorest, most vulnerable people then wouldn't have to face suffering in the way they might be now (e.g if the welfare reform bill goes through)

But is that really a feasible request? Is it ever going to happen? In an ideal world it would, but how does a goverment go about doing it when it is your closest friends and financial supporters who are the ones avoiding paying their taxes, and is it legitimate to say that the big companies involved would upsticks and leave if they were asked for more money, resulting in huge job losses, etc.? This seems to be the major argument against taking such action (rather than it being particularly complicated to do) but it strikes me that big companies would actually face losing an awful lot too if they had to up and move and that on balance whilst some companies would leave, most wouldn't. It just strikes me that this would be the best solution for the country, for companies to have to pay their taxes in full, but it's never going to happen and the poorest people will continue to be squeezed.

(Disclaimer, I am aware this issue is hugely complicated and I have M.E associated brain fog today so apologies if my post isn't well written)

Tax avoidance is totally legal. They should crack down on tax evasion. Or make their tax rates more reasonable so people don't mind paying!

I don't think legal tax minimisation can be quantified, and am wary about claims that there are billions in easy pickings there.

I do think simplification of our (huge) tax code would be a good thing.

Tax avoidence is legal. Tax evasion is illegal.

Having an ISA is tax avoidance! Totally legal and justified.

There are several issues that your OP brings up.

Yes of course the government should crack down on tax evasion. But actually the largest forms of tax evasion probably arises from self-employed people not declaring their taxes - the builders and cleaners who want to be paid in cash, employers of nannies claiming that they are self-employed rather than employed etc etc This is a vote-loser so successive governments have failed to tackle it.

None of the big companies you are thinking of have indulged in tax evasion; they have used legitimate forms of tax planning to minimise their tax burden. The government has tackled this. If it were to crack down more heavily, of course it could mean huge job losses. It's by and large the financial services industry that contributes to the most to taxation in the UK, and that industry is almost entirely portable.

I think the likes of Vodaphone are far larger tax avoiders than a legion of plumbers and cleaners.

I am getting fed up with the self employed bashing. We collect and pay a lot of tax.

Is the thread meant to be about tax evasion - illegal?

Or tax avoidance/minimisation? CinnabarRed's tax thread contained an interesting explanation of the Vodaphone saga, and why - under EU law - there was no other legal decision that could have been reached. Perhaps Labour did not realise the ramifications when they signed us up to that bit? Or (more likely) it was something that no EU member would have been able to avoid.

Tax avoidance is legal, evasion is illegal.
snowball, vodaphone have not done anythign illegal, whereas a self employed person who accepts cash and does not declare it is acting illegally.
If a company was siddenly told the tax laws were chaning and they were going to have to pay millons more then why would they not leave. Lots of comapnies have already moved or outsourced abroad.