David Cameron has to resign.

[PirateSmile]

If there is any evidence he has had even one penny of benefit from his father's dodgy tax arrangement, surely Cameron has to go?
He's saying 'it's a private matter' whilst presumably working on his notes for next month's conference on cracking down on such tax scams. You really couldn't make it up. He will no doubt plead ignorance but that's no defence. He is the PM. He should know he's benefiting from is essentially large scale fraud.
Are we really going to let him get away with this?

He hasn't even got it listed in his declaration of interests

It gets worse and worse ...

You can't be held responsible for your parents..

Having said that, if dad was fiddling the tax he ended up with much more in his estate than would otherwise be the case. And some of that money would go to the children (Dave).

I don't know how the law stands with respect to a child inheriting on account of tax avoidance by a parent. However, in this case I feel Dave should make sure he does not benefit from his father being a criminal. ..(Tax evasion is a criminal offence).

If he does get to keep some money from his father fiddling the tax... I feel it degrades his situation and shows him unfit to be PM.

We have a duty to know where our money comes from.

To an extent yes. If some shady business man offered DC a bag of money Id expect him to say no. If someone offered him some money to be a face of something, sign something, be on an exec board I would expect him to either say no or investigate it thoroughly.

If his wealthy father dies and leaves him some money I would not expect him to call the financial auditors in to see exactly how every penny was earned.

Tax avoidance was/is legal. Tax evasion isn't.

From what I read DC's father was in the first category. Similar to Cadburys, Amazon, etc I guess.

According to the Telegraph, Cameron's position is this:

"A senior No 10 source has told the Telegraph that the Prime Minister does not have any shares in his father Ian Cameron's offshore investment fund."

That is so narrow and specific any naturally skeptical person would see the scope for many other things lurking in the background.

What you have to understand is that most tax avoidance is completly within the law. Tax EVASION is illegal. They are not the same thing.

People who give funds to children/grandchildren during their lifetime to avoid inheritance tax

People who put assets into the name of the spouse with the lower marginal tax rate

People who create trusts after a family member's death

These are all tax avoidance and all very legal and happen every single day

And no, children are not culpable for the financial affairs of their dead parents

'If his wealthy father dies and leaves him some money I would not expect him to call the financial auditors in to see exactly how every penny was earned.'

I would - if his dad is a criminal and avoided tax to this extent.

Load of rubbish. He did not make tax avoiding investments, his father did. Do you think every child should pay for the actions of their parents?

His dad was not a criminal though

Should Cameron benefit from dad's tax evasion investments?

What his father did, whilst morally dubious, was technically legal (although I suspect would now fall under GAAR) and prior to the public's swing in perception to tax being a 'moral duty' would be considered sensible tax planning.

I think Cameron is a bit of a twat but I don't think you can blame him for this one.

Inkanta it's not tax evasion. It's avoidance, from the information currently held. which is legal.

I'm not jumping to any conclusions

But you are looking at it firmly from the side of assuming he has done something wrong and are dismissive about those who are looking at it from the other side.

Evasion/Avoidance - should Cameron benefit from dad's evasion/avoidance paying tax??

But this isn't about Cameron being fine because there's no illegality. The government justifies what it does on the basis that "We are all in this together". Cameron has repeatedly spoken against aggressive tax avoidance while on the other hand he seems to have been the beneficiary of it.

Although I don't think for one moment that Cameron should resign, what I want to see is his hypocrisy exposed so that the government can be shamed into action in a fairer and more open way.

inkanta you have used both "avoid" and "evade" in pp which illustrates the general misunderstanding about this

It brings to mind Margaret Hodge's pathetic questioning of tax accountants which went a bit like this*

"So you help people avoid tax do you?"
"Yes"
"How do you sleep at night"
"Quite well thanks. I'm just doing my job"

*may be paraphrased 😀

And inkanta if you have an ISA or contribute to a pension you are avoiding tax. Just saying.

SoupDragon I simply want to have a conversation about it. Ten percent of the Icelandic people have signed a petition calling for their PM to resign. In the UK, we seem to be happy with Cameron's explanation, "it's a private matter'...

Inkanta I think you should be very careful about banding words such as criminal about. Also look at the difference between evasion and avoidance. One is illegal and one isn't.

Are the Icelandic tax laws identical to ours?

The huge difference, of course, is that is was actually the Icelandic PM who was avoiding tax and not his father.

I would be surprised if you can find many MPs on either side who haven't been a beneficiary of tax avoidance. Where there's money there's aggressive tax planning.

I think he's not done a bad job of trying to close loopholes.

You are missing the whole point about tax evasion and tax avoidance, and the difference.

I simply want to have a conversation about it

And yet you are dismissive of people who think differently to you, saying you are "astonished". That's hardly wanting to have an agenda free conversation about it.

The huge difference, of course, is that is was actually the Icelandic PM who was avoiding tax and not his father.

This