To think Gary Barlow is worse than a benefits cheat?

[Roshbegosh]

People cheating on benefits do at least need the money .... What he has done is hard to excuse IMO

No, tax avoidance is not illegal. Tax evasion is illegal.

All these tax avoidance schemes are registered with HMRC.

Benefit fraud is a Criminal offence. It's not a victimless crime. Many hardworking legitimate tradespeople get priced out of jobs by others committing Benefit fraud.

Benefit fraud is a crime, tax avoidance is not. Thats before you add in that he has probably paid more than in tax than he will ever receive several times over.

YANBU. To not pay the tax he should have, just to keep the maximum for himself because he likes money, is a million times scummier than claiming the shitty amount you'd get if you still lived alone for a bit, after a partner has moved in, say.

You don't get to choose charities you like and give them an amount you deem appropriate: you just pay your fucking taxes into the pot like everyone else.

And Cameron's response is just as shitty. I'd expect nothing better from either if them.

He has to pay the tax back though so surely what he did was wrong/illegal? If it was legal then he wouldn't have to pay the tax back.

Do we know the extent of his avoidance as a proportion of earning? If he pays 35% instead of 50%, ok, that's not so bad, but if he's paying 2%, that's rather taking the piss.

Also people saying that he's paid in and worked hard so leave him alone is faulty reasoning. Almost everything I buy has VAT attached and I pay income tax/NI so should I just not bother paying my council tax? Come on.

Tax avoidance is not victimless either. Illegal and immoral are not synonyms.

I'd rather be 'cheated' by someone scraping by than by someone worth that sort of money. I'd actually rather we made sure people had decent benefit entitlements in the first place.

I do think that they (all the members of the avoidance scheme) should have to pay back more than the original tax owing. They should pay a percentage amount for the benefit of having the money for that period.

I could live quite happily for the rest of my life on the interest from these effectively deferred tax payments.

Yanu.

The problem is sought advice from an accountant who is suppose to be very up to date with current hmrc guidelines.

Obviously you trust the advice of an account if you are not clued up on hmrc guidelines yourself.

However before the accountant submits things to hmrc on your behalf, you sign a declaration that you are fully responsible for the figures that he submits.

So if the figures are wrong, its you that is in the crap, not the accountant.

According to the tax man when i had dealings with him, if you dont have an accountant then you are more likely to get a tax visit regarding checking your books than if you have an accountant.

YABU

what he did is not illegal, big difference between avoidance and evasion. We all would work the system if we could, no brainier.

Benefit cheats know they are gaining funds illegally, its stealing

one rule for the rich

another for the poor

Tax avoidance may not be a victimless act, but it's not a crime.

You are confusing your ( personal views of) immorality and criminality .

I might believe that adultery is immoralist usually there are " victims" , but that doesn't make it a crime. Nor , for the avoidance of doubt , do I think it should be.

The problem is he*

Just two sides of the same coin I think, but Barlow and his charity stuff now seems very hypocritical

I am really glad that we can rely on the law to tell us what is right and what is wrong. If it's not illegal, why, it must be fine!

You dont need to be rich to avoid tax. Just run a company with a decent accountant.

HMRC has said that it's a scheme designed for people 'trying to dodge their tax obligations'.

This avoidance vs evasion argument always comes up on MN. It's bogus. Planning your affairs to pay as little tax as possible is very sensible; claiming tax relief on shell investments and/or structuring your organisation with offshore HQ purely as a means of avoiding tax is immoral.

What he did was clearly abusive, and probably illegal. He thought he would get away with it. He didn't.

But as the law stands, it's not a criminal act in the way that benefits fraud is.

Why pay of you dont have too?

I dont get that mentality, he does tons for charity he gives enough to those who need it.

YANBU, wtf does he need with the extra £60 million or whatever it is.

never liked him anyway

He did have to pay, he just came up with some bollocks claiming that he was doing something he wasn't.

Again bash those who have worked for their money, why does he need it.

Cause he earned it not claimed it in benefits

He does have to pay it mrsbucket, that's why he has to pay it back. And perhaps if greedy fuckers like him actually paid the tax they should, we wouldn't need to support charities so much.

Only because hmrc deemed it as such in the last few days or so up to that point it wasnt an issue.

He isnt the first sleb to be caught like this remeber jimmy car did something similar

He knew what he was doing.

We've been told about ways to get around paying tax via loopholes. There was one that would have saved us tens of thousands in stamp duty. We declined as it just seem right and we don't the rest of our lives worrying about something like that.
Several of our friends have used loopholes in the past. They are shitting themselves at the moment wondering if they'll have to play it all back.