To think its fine for Bono to put his money in offshore tax havens while...

[MelodyvonPeterswald]

he encourages the rest of us ordinary mortals to do more to alleviate poverty and debt. This man deserves to be canonised.

What's the difference between Bono and God?
God doesn't walk about thinking he's Bono.

Think this sums Bono up perfectly

Unlikely they'll be closed. Those who could close them use them.

I don't care if it's all perfectly legal. It's still fucking immoral. It makes all Bono's political posturing ridiculous.

There's many reasons I like JK Rowling, and one of them is that she's never been a hypocritical tax-dodger.

Loads of IT contractors resident in the UK were doing exactly the same as Mrs Brown Boys.... I hope that hmrc go after the lot of them....

HMRC are indeed going after them. Lots of tax demands for huge amounts of money being sent out, and new laws in progress to charge tax on the balances of loans still outstanding. Lots of IT contractors and the like quaking in their boots and worrying about losing their homes.

Lakie if your BIL is buying properties with the intention of doing them up to sell on at a profit then he should be paying income tax on the profits (so living in them doesn't exempt them from tax as that only applies to capital gains tax) so he is evading tax - which is illegal. One day he might well get caught out.

Everyone talking about the Queen avoiding tax - I understood that the income from the Duchy of Lancaster goes to the Government and in return the Royal Family get their Civil List payments. So surely the people ultimately responsible are the Cabinet Ministers (Tory and Labour) acting as Chancellors of the Duchy of Lancaster - all of whom will no doubt be quick to say it was nothing to do with them despite being paid to do the job....

Fucking rich people.

why is this even news headline - 'someone does something that is legal'
immoral may be, but immoral for doing some thing legal, not sure.
if things are to change it needs to be done at the highest level, its estimated governments around the world lose 700 billion dollars in tax each year, and getting on 10% of personal wealth is held off shore, whilst these schemes are legal more and more people will use them.
dont shoot the monkey shoot the organ grinder - if change is needed them HMRC/the government need to change, but as this has been going on since ancient Greece, its going to take some changing - you can in the case of companies that avoid business tax vote with your feet - google,amazon,apple,starbucks etc all have alternatives.

Unlikely they'll be closed. Those who could close them use them
Exactly, unfortunately.

why is this even news headline
Because while there are people with numerous jobs and still unable to pay their bills without benefits, and while there are food banks, any highlighting of unfairness and social inequality tend to piss people off. And doom and gloom sells newspapers.

It's the sheer scale of it. The hoarding, hoarding, hoarding of millions upon millions of pounds while people starve, live on the streets, have no access to healthcare or education.

Legality is no excuse. There comes a point of obscenity with this sort of wealth. We know it when we see it. It seems wrong because it is wrong. Such vast inequality is a plague on the world.

As far as I know, the practice of being able to "borrow" money from your "own company" indefinitely, interest free (and previously tax free) is a loop hole that the tax authorities are quickly swooping down on. I guess places like Mauritius (where the Mrs Brown's Boys actors have their "companies" registered) are just happy to have the foreign currency in flow but you've got to wonder how long it'll last.

The point is that tax law needs to be changed to make all these shenanigans illegal.

If a £ is earned/spent in the UK it its tax should go to the exchequer. Simple, surely?

Am I right in thinking that apple iPhones UK revenue goes to Ireland?

Ireland had very attractive corporate tax rate (10%) so many companies set up their global HQs in Dublin - sometimes nothing more than a big swanky virtually emoty office and a skeleton staff - while 4000 employees in he UK work for a "subsidiary". I think the EU are already clamping down on this.

in the case of companies that avoid business tax vote with your feet

I hope you extend that philosophy to not attending pop concerts and buying music downloads from the pop stars who've "moved abroad for creative reasons" to avoid paying tax. And to not attending the Olympic games, commonwealth games, premier league football matches involving tax avoiders. And not going to the cinema or buying DVDs. And not watching TV personalities nor buying Hello magazine to subsidise your favourite tax avoiding "slebs". It's far more widespread that the usual targetting of big business and completely hypocritical not to boycott your "slebs" if you boycott Starbucks, Amazon, etc.

Ireland had very attractive corporate tax rate (10%) so many companies set up their global HQs in Dublin - sometimes nothing more than a big swanky virtually emoty office and a skeleton staff - while 4000 employees in he UK work for a "subsidiary". I think the EU are already clamping down on this.

Ironically it's membership of the EU that facilitated and encouraged this in the first place. Apparently, I'm told that the usual transfer tax rules don't apply within EU as long as the company is paying their taxes in any EU state. EU law needs to change to stop facilitating/encouraging this and to start to ban it.

For those who complained about Labour's "sweatheart" deal with Vodafone, do you feel the same outrage that they also did special deals with Olympic stars to encourage them to come to the London Olympics - many sports superstars were threatening to boycott the games as they moved out of the UK for tax reasons and were worried that returning to the UK would make them liable to UK tax on their earnings. So, they're happy to wear the UK shirt but not happy to pay UK tax.

Sorry but where’s the story in this not one of the schemes mentioned is illegal and every time i hear it on the news they all say whilst not illegal.....

Tax avoidance is legal and we all practice it to a greater or lesser extent. All companies use tax avoidance - off setting corporation tax against losses of previous years or investment.

When they start looking into tax evasion then there’s a story.

London is still the largest off shore tax haven in the world and the uk mainland & eu should get their own house in order before attacking the British territories.

Or do all those Russians, Chinese and other nationals reside in the uk for love. Don’t think so.

There's many reasons I like JK Rowling, and one of them is that she's never been a hypocritical tax-dodger.

How do you know?

There's many reasons I like JK Rowling, and one of them is that she's never been a hypocritical tax-dodger.

But as far as I know, she "trades" through a limited company, so can take advantage of not paying NIC on her substantial profits, she pays large sums to charity, so there is charity gift aid tax relief. She's "avoiding" tax to some extent as if she traded as a sole trader she'd pay a hell of a lot more tax/nic.

but immoral for doing some thing legal, not sure.

It is a tough question.

but its not illegal though?

And to the person who called Nicole Scherzinger 'Nicole Shitsinger' - was there any need to be that rude really? Unneccesary.

they are all at it - no need to single him out

Why not? He's a sanctimonious windbag, constantly telling other less well off people what to do with their money. Go ahead single him out. Just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean someone this hypocritical can't be called out.

The companies and individuals taking advantage of legal but innately immoral schemes just look down at us PAYE plebs and think they are the clever ones for playing the system.

It doesn't keep them awake at night; the rest of us are just fools in their eyes.

I don't know what the answer is, as I feel it has to be a global change. And that is never going to happen. If the UK toughens up further, other countries will facilitate regardless, as they do now.

And individuals in a position of extreme wealth, power or influence would be killing the goose that laid the golden egg if they contemplated making changes for the common good.

Something can be legal and still immoral.

It may be legal to avoid taxes but while we have an NHS in crisis, a shortage of social workers, people living on the streets it IS immoral. This isn't really a grey area to me.

Selling religion at doorsteps legal - imo immoral especially when targeting the vulnerable.

In India, Afghanistan, Egypt, UAE, Iraq, Iran (the list goes on) it is legal to rape your wife but make no mistake it IS immoral.

These people know this practice is morally suspect it is why they are so reluctant to talk about it. I don't give a toss if it is legal, people are angry because it is immoral in a world where other people are suffering to stow your money away and pretend you have no duty whatsoever to the society you take part in.