To be really pissed off about Nadhim Zahawi's tax affairs?

[scooterbee32]

Am I the only one seething about this man? He is a disgrace to have avoided paying so much tax as an MP. And then he comes out and says he made a careless but not deliberate error and that's meant to wash? I could understand Joe Bloggs making an error when filling in their self assessment without an accountant (and then HMRC would incessantly hound and threaten them until error had been fixed and paid). But a multi millionaire saying this, is just plain insulting. He should be sacked with immediate affect and investigated immediately.

These double standards for those in government make me sick. We spend more time moaning about illegal immigrants being given bare minimum to live on, than these multi millionaires who are constantly trying to avoid tax. Counting down the days we can vote these morally void, charlatans out of power!

The problem with Labour is that they refuse to do anything about sheer woman hating MP’s such as Lloyd Russell-Moyle, see thread about his intimidation of female MP’s here:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4722846-miriam-cates-abuse-in-hoc-by-lloyd-russell-moyle?page=11

And no, I’m not saying that the Tories are a better option, but what the fuck do we have to choose from? Politics as a whole has gone to hell in a hand basket.

that BBC article is saying that he DID pay it,
The article says that NZ did NOT AVOID paying tax
Maybe he tried to avoid it, but he was unsuccessful
He paid extra, too, a 30% penalty .. I am guessing this was technically because he paid late not because he was found guilty of violating rules.

So the person who wrote "avoided paying so much tax as an MP." was wrong, because NZ DID NOT AVOID paying tax.

Instead, the outrage is that he tried to avoid paying tax.

I have tried to avoid paying tax too, using tax code I thought I was allowed to use, so I am not in a place to condemn or get outraged if someone else tries to avoid paying tax using tax rules they think they are legally allowed to use.

The problem with the incompetent, corrupt, sleazy Tory government is not Labour. Yet somehow even on a thread about Tory corruption, incompetence and sleaze it’s ‘but what about Labour’.

@lljkk very forgiving and magnanimous of you towards millions of ££.

What we have to choose from in the UK's current electoral system is between labour and tory, sadly it's as simple as that. So we need to consider one and the other and decide which one we want to see in power. Much that I disagree with labour's definition of a woman, the priviliged, entitled, dodgy as fuck self serving twats should not be in power, so very simple decision to me.

That was is response to @risefromyourgrave

Absolutely!!!

@lljkk that's rubbish. He didn't just pay his tax late. He was investigated by HMRC and found to have been involved in an elaborate scheme to wrongly avoid paying tax that was due. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time. He's repeatedly lied about the issue and repeatedly threatened legal action against the people who've sought to expose his wrongdoing.

According to the Guardian, Zahawi got hit with a 30% penalty which I think is the maximum HMRC can levy for “a careless and not deliberate mistake” with CGT tax.

As to whether it’s “a careless and not deliberate mistake”, then this timeline of Dan Neidle’s investigation in Zahawi (and the threats he received as a result) makes interesting reading.

www.theneweuropean.co.uk/how-i-cost-nadhim-zahawi-3-7million/

I reckon he's an arrogant bully, too.
Doesn't change fact, at this point he has paid.
In the past he avoided paying, and now he has paid.

So you can be outraged that he ... paid late?

Tried not to.

Attempting criminal behaviour often gets punished in line with the offence you were attempting to do, for good reason.

Nah.

We can be outraged because, as Chancellor, he was disingenuous about his tax affairs, threatened legal action against anybody calling it out, was caught out when it was demonstrated that he was benefitting from an overseas tax avoidance scheme, and was subsequently forced to settle with HMRC.

He's such a palpably obvious bandit that surely it's no surprise to anyone though.

You definitely wouldn't buy a car off him

There's a big difference between just paying your tax late and paying assessed tax and a penalty as a result of an investigation by HMRC and the SFO, when you're a multimillionaire ex-Chancellor.

"So you can be outraged that he ... paid late?"

I think we should be outraged that a Cabinet member pretended his Dad was owed 100% of founder shares in a company Zahawi founded, stuck the shares off shore to avoid £3.7 million in tax, received at least £90,000 dividend payments whilst saying he wasnt a beneficiary, paid for solicitors to threaten a tax lawyer and then negotiated his repayment terms with HMRC whilst he was Chancellor and therefore in charge of HMRC - and then campaigned to be voted as Tory leader and PM.

Heaven knows how much time and money was wasted just investigating it.

This is not just semantics on whether he avoided, tried to avoid, or paid late. Come ON!!

The Mail and The Sun are both reporting that Zahawi missed out on a knighthood in the New Year's Honours due to his tax dispute.

So … it was well known within No 10 that Zahawi had careless with his tax affairs then?

He paid because he was caught, because of the dogged investigation of people like Dan Neidle despite being sent threatening letters by Zahawi's lawyers to stop talking about it.

He paid because the gig was up. He was fined, because he broke the rules.

And he should have gone to prison. It was clearly deliberate.

This article has some interesting background, and this seems to me to be indicative of more than a misunderstanding as to what is "legally allowed".

Dan Neidle article

Either way, I don't think it matters much. Whoever has the job of CoE is the govt's chief finance minister and thus responsible for, among other things, the collection of taxes. The postholder therefore needs to be seen as squeaky clean themselves, or they lose credibility and create an air of "do as I say, not what I do".

These people are not conservative. They are the epitome of corrupt, incompetent socialism. aka consocialists.

It's a good news story, too. That is

"Diligent but underpaid civil servant(s)" (HMRC) "notice a problem with tax statement filed, untangle the problem, collect tax due and levy an appropriate penalty even though the tax payer is Hoi Polloi."

"Hip Hip Hooray for the tax collectors!" (&)

(&) would be cool if MNHQ made this focus of next MN campaign.

@sst1234 bloody hell, what’s the matter with you? Tell these Tories to their face that they aren’t Tories, see how that goes.

What utter bollocks. There really is no positive spin on this story.

Zahawi was investigated in 2020 by the National Crime Agency and the Serious Fraud Office. They passed it on to HMRC.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/chancellor-nadhim-zahawi-tax-investigation-hmrc-b2119590.html?amp

I would agree with the “diligent but underpaid civil servant” bit though - as the child of a tax inspector who worked on exactly these types of cases. I suspect Zahawi can count himself lucky getting off with just a penalty.

Actually I can think of another way this could be considered a "good news story" in that it's a story people could feel very happy to hear, at least it should make people very happy who...

don't like Tories
don't like NZ
don't like successful tax avoidance

It's even a "feel good" story if you can comfortably take delight in NZ's uncomfortable situation.

You're absolutely right, OP. No way in hell was this a careless error; it was a deliberate effort to avoid paying his fair share in to the public pot. He thinks he is better than the rest of us.

And he charged us to keep his horses all warm & cosy. Remember that?Some of us could barely afford to keep ourselves warm then, and even more of us likewise now.

I loathe people like him.