to think a tax dodger should NOT be celeb dad of the year?

[shipinabottle]

Gary Barlow has won celeb dad of the year.
I think its disgusting people think he is such a great role model and a great father.
He beat David Beckham who is always pictured with his children but I don't think I've ever seen one photo of Barlow with his children.

It's a meaningless made up "award"

No one takes it seriously.

Having photos of parent and child splashed across the media, is no measure of whether a parent is good or not.

Because being pictured with your children regularly is such an obvious sign of ones parenting ability

I still think it gives out the wrong message. It reinforces that if you are rich the rules don't apply to you and you can do what you want and still be adored

I think if he chooses to keep his children out of the public eye and away from the paparazzi that can only be a good thing.

Sleb Dad of the Year is a load of bollocks anyway and no doubt it's just a PR exercise from whichever big corporate sponsors it and wants to raise their profile among families with spending power. I'm sure GB doesn't give a stuff either way about it - he is just being used by them for their own ends.

What he did with tax was an avoidance scheme, not tax evasion. You don't have to like it or agree with it, but it wasn't illegal and there will be thousands of other people doing similar every year - you just don't hear about them because they are not famous. If he's not breaking the law I really can't be bothered to get into too much of a lather over it.

Re the pictures in the media I don't mean posed ones, I mean there is always pictures of the Beckhams doing things with their kids.

Gary Barlow is hideous. He is embarrassing on tv, especially that new year's show. Ugh. He makes me a bit angry when I see him.

And I had forgotten about dodging tax.

Why do they even have those parents of the year things? And who decides who gets it?

I quite like the way he's keeping them out of the limelight. I think thats more to be applauded than posing with them left right and centre.

If anyone should have won this award, it should have been Tom Fletcher! Has nobody seen video?!

I know its not a real award but I am gutted he won

yanbu.

Yes redkite this is the sort of dad who should have won.

Every time GB's tax dodging is discussed it gives me the rage that he has still got national treasure status & got very little public criticism. Jimmy Carr had to make a public apology & was criticised by David Cameron for doing the same thing. GB is DC's mate though so that might explain some of it.

YABU for even knowing that this prize even existed, more so for knowing who won it and even more so for actually giving a stuff.

It's not an Olympic gold or a first from Harvard. It's a load of made up crap to feed sad celeb obsessed weirdos.

It's a stupid made up media award. I imagine he couldn't give a flying fuck about it.
What has paying taxes got to do with being a parent? Nothing.

And I bet most of the people giving out about it wouldn't be arguing if their accountants told them they could pay less tax. They'd be saying yes please and signing the papers. AFAIK he broke no laws at all.

As if parading his kids around in public would make him a better parent? They probably want to keep them away from all that, especially since their last one was stillborn.

This is an actual award? I wonder what the criteria is for such an award, whatever it is I'll put money on that Peter Andre has won in at least once

But what both Gary Barlow and Jimmy Carr did was legal as pointed out upthread. A few years ago no one would have given it a second thought. It might irritate people's sense of fairness but a lot of those same.people.will have thought nothing of paying a tradesman in cash for a lower charge, and yet often the charge is lower because VAT is not being paid when it should be. That is illegal yet plenty of.people.think nothing of it (paying in cash is not itself a crime obv). So there is a lot of hypocrisy out there.

Also many politicians have entered into tax avoidance schemes in the past, maybe not such contrived ones - I don't know. (Not.saying DC is one of them of course). Shaming Jimmy Carr was just throwing him to the lions basically.

Not saying GB should be Dad of the Year btw. I know nothing about him.

I think the hatred about tax dodgers is mostly rabble-rousing DailyMailism to mobilize the naive and easily led. If people can get away without paying taxes legally, the people at fault are the legislators who lack the competence to create a tax framework that obliges them to. Every sane human being complies with their legal obligations on tax, and most people wouldn't fucking care if some lunatic down the road thought they should voluntarily decrease their net income by a bigger number said lunatic thinks would be naice.

Still, good luck fighting the good fight on behalf of the inland revenue's bottom line though, comrades.

There's a lot of rabble-raising about these days, and a lot of people who listen to it.

He's a tax avoider, not a tax evader. He's done nothing wrong.

I believe everyone should pay as little tax (or claim as much in benefits) as the law legally allows. If people don't like the what the law says, they should get it changed, not start a witch-hunt against people who are playing by the rules.

YABU As far as Im aware he avoided tax not evaded it. In the same way, many years ago, I turned down a pay rise as it would have taken me into the higher tax bracket and I would have been worse off. Does that make me a tax evader?

I presume he pays an accountant whose job it is to get him the best deal. Have a go at the Government, not Gary Barlow. Its up to them to close all the loopholes but they will not as all their banker friends would object.

As to the award, like me, I'm sure Mr Barlow don't give a monkeys about it.

Ugh, he's as dull as ditch water imo

Hang on, breastalanche, I think the Daily Mail love tax dodgers like that!

I'm amazingly fine with hating on tax dodgers, and loving people like JK Rowling who not only pay their fair share, but pay more on top. I think she has a very sane and fair attitude to money.

I'm especially fine on hating on extremely wealthy and hypocritical tax dodgers like Barlow.

(Though I wouldn't describe it as "hating", more "informed, fair-minded critique"...)

I wouldn't say its rebel rousing just that in these times of austerity that there are some that definitely 'not all in it together' and just kind of grates when these people are then held up in such high esteem.

I turned down a pay rise as it would have taken me into the higher tax bracket and I would have been worse off.

But you only pay the higher rate of tax on the bit that falls into the higher bracket, so how would you have been worse off?

A bit harsh. He was offered advice by his accountant and he took it. All entirely legal.

TTWK because you lose your personal (tax free) allowance after a certain point (£100k) so there's a 'window' of income where you are paying a huge marginal rate because it's 40% plus the lost PA and it is possible to be worse off overall.