The Rich According to the Guardian

[Judy1234]

www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/aug/04/workandcareers.executivesalaries

I presume most Cuba lovers don't speak teh lingo so couldn't find work. Always a slight drawback to living in a country. Unless you are rich and have connections.

However, the scrap metal business might also be big in Cuba.

My Spanish is ok and they don't pronounce the c as a 'th' like they do in Madrid so it doesn't sound all gross and lispy.

Lithpy.

The point was that these people are clueless about how the other 99% of the population live; (especially the lawyer who stated he couldn't understand how anyone could survive on less than £100KpA)

Simply because these people are in highly paid jobs you shouldn't confuse that with having the ability to posses a valid or informed opinion of anything outside of obscure financial derivatives, or international tax law.

The government's infatuation with the city brought us to where we are now; overly lax regulation allowing a bunch of overpaid idiots to piss away shareholder cash into investments 'secured' on the ability of Cletus T. Rumpsteak of West Bumfuck, Louisiana, and several million of his compatriots, to keep up repayments on the $400,000 they borrowed to buy a double-wide trailer.

HMG should be talking to these people. But it shouldn't be obeying them.

I think smallwhitecat is entirely wrong on non doms. Ther seems to be no day in residence requirement. All you seem to need to do is say you have a connection to another country and don't intend to live in the UK forever. So you live here, have a house here, send your kids to school here, work here etc but pay no income tax at all. NO other country in the entire world has this system and far from being a clever modern invention to encourage entrepreneurs to our shores, it is a hangover from an ancient laws, revived to enable those who benefited from Empire (sugar plantation owners, rubber plantation owners etc) to keep their earnings without paying UK income tax. It is entirely unfair, which is why, I'd guess, nobody else lets its residents get away with it.
www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/apr/11/politics.economy1
I find it dispiriting that people get so upset about people claiming benefits, and are so keen to suck up to the rich. It seems some people genuinely think being rich is a sign that someone is morally superior. It's like the studies that show that beautiful people are less likely to be convicted of a crime than their homely counterparts. We worship at the altar of looks and money.

They get their UK salary and dividends paid direct to their offshore accounts, smw. That's how they come foreign assets. None of us can play that trick.

Do you regard the Telegraph as more authoritative?www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1578096/What-are-non-domiciles-Non-dom-QandampA.html These people are British citizens with british jobs. They should pay tax like the rest of us, or as they would in any other country in the world.

No other country lets its citizens avoid tax on all their earnings. If I earn some money from the US, which I do from time to time, I can't say, 'Oh, that's foreign money' and refuse to pay tax on it. LIve in UK, benefit from the UK, pay UK tax.

Unless you pay 30k up front, and then you can bring in whatever you want.

I find that the very rich consider themselves to be above the law that applies to us lesser humans. They pay lawyers to help them get away with speeding offenses and happily park illegally as they can afford the fines. They also choose which tax to pay and which to avoid.

I personally believe that the government should simplify the tax system so that everyone pays a simple proportion of their income to the government. The incredibly complicated system that we have at the moment plays into the hands of those happy few who can afford to bend the rules.

YOu may call it 'envy', but others will call it 'fairness'.
SWC, you really do appear to revere the rich, to the extent of making wildly inaccurate statements in defence of rich men you never met, like Dittany's boss. As you know so little, I can assume you are not that rich yourself, so why the adulation?

I don't judge people by their wealth and am well aware that there are some seriously well paid people around who aren't necessarily interesting, skilful people, and they aren't necessarily doing worthwhile, useful jobs. Equally there are some very dynamic, clever people who make great contributions to society who earn comparatively little.
However, whatever you think of 'rich'people, it's stupid to say that they pay proportionately less on tax than poorer people,as blatantly this isnt true.

But it was you that didn't understand them, smw, not Dittany. She understood perfectly well that he lived here, sent his kids to school here, worked her, but paid no income tax. It was you that rushed to defend him with absolutely zero understanding of the whole non-doms thing, and without even doing a simple Google search, and if it's not a kkind of instinctive hat-doffing reverence, that made you do that, I would like to know what it is.