...to think David Cameron's tax affairs are no- one else's business?

[Nessalina]

I think all of this furore over the PM's finances is a bit bizarre. If the law allows people to reduce the amount of tax they may need to pay through lawful methods, why shouldn't he be able to do the same? Yes, he's a red-faced pillock with far too much money, but he's not actually broken any laws... Prepares to be flamed

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

DC paying what he owes on his tax account and government austerity aren't linked, no.

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

But that's got nothing to do with Cameron applying the law to what he pays in tax candy. Iknow that tax cuts affect the rich. And austerity affects the poor (in general)

[howabout]

DC gets to decide the rules on what he owes on his tax account.

[HildaFlorence]

Tax law in this country is very complex and made by parliament and enforced by HMRC . DC has no direct control over how his on come is taxed , this is not some Tin pot dictatorship

[PollyPurple]

Seems he has so much money he hasn't got a feckin' clue where most of it's been stuffed!

Makes him seem entirely out of touch with the common people!

[howabout]

I see Hilda

[lljkk]

Are you joking? Common people have only fuzzy clue where their money is, often where it went to, what investments they have (pension confusion anyone??) etc. There are tens of thousands of forgotten dormant investments, many containing paltry sums of money.. One estimate is £77 billion. If DC finds it's hard to keep track, he's pretty much the same as most of us.

[FarAwayHills]

Where it drifts into dodgy ground is people making sure all their income is paid to an offshore company whereby they pay no uk tax, when they live and work in the uk

Tax experts have looked at this and don't see any problems with the underlying funds, in fact they said its not even a very good method of avoiding tax.

[WhoaCadburys]

Complete non-story. Compared to most families of his background, I was stunned that it was only £500K (from his mother and father so far). Totally within the guidelines.

Yes, it is our business though.

[Cornishclio]

No surprise that conservatives don't like inheritance tax. They said they would get rid of it and have increased allowance. I quite agree. Most of the money has already been taxed I expect. IHT avoidance is practiced widely in all sorts of families

[oliviaclottedcream]

British PM a liar? Who would have thought it? That said, Cameron has lied now 4 times, by my reckoning. But who gives a toss? He's not standing again for office and we expect nothing else.

[jellyfrizz]

I give a toss. I have high expectations of people who have been voted into power. We all should, they are making decisions on our behalf.

[PollyPurple]

You're talking tiny amounts by comparison though, lljkk! You really can't compare. Plus it's the indifference of having a few 100K? stashed away which had been 'forgotten' about. It's THAT which makes him seem so out of touch! You're not talking about 77 quid which Aunt Ada left in her savings back in 1977 are you!

[oliviaclottedcream]

I didn't mean us.. I meant Cameron, he's not standing for PM again, so what does he care?

[oliviaclottedcream]

But, OK.. re reading my post , I didn't sound like I meant that, so, my mistake..

[candykane25]

I give a toss too.
He's the PM. He's representing us.
Having very low expectations of the PM is not good as a general rule.

[lljkk]

Forgotten ££££ neglected since before year 2000 probably went to charity already.

Basically DC is being criticised for being rich.
I object to capital gains tax cuts being funded by disability cuts. But that has little to do with DC's own assets.

[candykane25]

No. Not because he's rich.

Because he's tax avoiding when in charge of tax policy.

And CGT is relevant here. He avoided paying it. He's avoided paying inheritance tax. He's chosen deregulated financial schemes so we can't be sure of anything really.

[Alfieisnoisy]

Personally I couldn't give a stuff what Shiny Dave has or has not done with his money. The media are gunning for him but I suspect dirty tricks afoot. Who would replace him? They are all up to this kind of tax avoidance trick. Dear Boris would not even answer when pushed on the topic about HIS tax affairs.

Nope the right wing press owners want us to Brexit...and this is why they are gunning for Dave.

Was interesting listening to Nigel Lawson pushing for Brexit this morning. That would be Nigel Lawson who lives in ....er....France.

The tax avoidance stuff is shite of the highest order from all of these rich Tory toffs but don't make the mistake of thinking the right wing press has suddenly gained a conscience...it hasn't.

Meanwhile services remain cut to the bone in the name of austerity and "we're all in it together". Personally I wouldn't mind being "all in it together" if those who could clearly afford to pay more taxes actually bloody did so.

[oliviaclottedcream]

Nice try lljkk But totally wrong. Cameron's being criticised because the admission that he profited from his father’s financial dealings had to be bloody well dragged out of him. After he twisted lied and squirmed.. If it was just about his personal wealth (which is peanuts compared to his wife BTW) , there would have been this much public anger far sooner...

For proof of this - consider the fact that Cameron’s approval rating has sunk to its lowest level since 2013. A YouGov survey published yesterday found that Corbyn is now ahead of Cameron on approval ratings.

[CatchIt]

Personally I think YANBU, there are legitimate ways to reduce your tax bill that are perfectly legal.

I also saw this on Martin Lewis's Facebook page:

Martin Lewis
8 hrs ·
The Sunday Times front page is today implying Cameron's mother's £200,000 gift to him is an inheritance tax 'dodge' and 'avoidance'; yet I'm sure its own money section has often rightly recommended doing just that as legitimate tax planning. What next will we see "Cameron dodged £15,240 of saving tax by putting money in an ISA"?
So far in this debate I've been vocal on the fact we have a moral duty to pay our taxes - its the cost of living in a legitimate civil society. And offshore complex financial avoidance and dodgy hidden manipulative trusts should rightly be called avoidance and castigated
Yet lets call it avoidance when it is avoidance and not using government allowances to do things that we're supposed to do - even if you're prime minister. To try and grow this story by trying to darken the act of standard tax planning, isn't a good route,
The rules are plain you can give money from income, or give money more than 7 years before you die and there's no inheritence tax. Utilising that isn't dodgy.

I honestly think it's just a way of having a pop at the pm.

I'd like to point out I'm pretty unbothered by the pm's antics and don't really care for him either way, however this is just a bit of a joke now!!

[umizoomi]

The IHT bit is a non - story. Anyone with any brain would do this although my understanding of IHT is that it's due on the ESTATE of the person who died not the cash or asset received by the person its bequeathed to. So presumably Cameron Senior left more than £300k to his kids as there is talk of the Cameron siblings getting houses/other assets.

If he left £300k to two children £600K total, this would have been subject to IHT at the start, they wouldn't avoid it as its £300k each?!

[Slarti]

People also seem to think that because Cameron is PM they have a right to look into his wife, parents and siblings - they aren't public figures, they have a right to privacy.

Is the fact that this non public figure somewhat needlessly (considering her own private wealth) spends £53,000 a year of tax payers money on a style adviser a private matter?

[Mistigri]

I can't stand Cameron but it is getting a bit stupid now.

The daily mail (run by a non-Dom) having a pop at Cameron over tax? What a joke.

[Eustace2016]

I think one of his 3 siblings got a house and the mother gave the other two £200k to make up their share so they had the same or somethinng like that.

Cameron didn't do lawful IHT avoidance. The executors or his mother did although of course he could have donated the money to the Labour Party or chosen not to take it.

What CGT avoidance are people saying he did? I couldn't see any. He did very badly with the investments and in one year made a loss. one gain they each used their annual CGT allowance on. Have people on here not used their annual income tax allowance and if they have are we saying they are dirty little tax avoiders?