If the coalition really want 'savings', why do they ignore the £40bn a year in tax avoidance...?

[LadyBlaBlah]

Bearing in mind that benefit fraud (feckless scrounging wasters) and error costs us £5.2b, why the emphasis on this, rather than tax avoidance?

That Guardian/Tesco story was a perfect example of avoidance that is clearly on dodgy ground = £1bn I think too !!

Apparently Dave is recruiting Phillip Green to help him decide where to put the spending cuts now - another fine example of someone whose tax payments have been questioned on many occasions.

50 billion is un-collected taxes then Bertie why is that? Damn it we need that money right now!!!!

PAYE means you gotts pay...not let out there...its the others who evade that need rockets nes pa?

I think that there is a culture in this country that says that paying tax is bad, and it is morally legitimate to avoid doing so. Hence the number of people who will offer the option of paying cash at a discount. It doesn't matter whether they are rich or poor, it is still wrong.

Unfortunately, recent governments both Labour and Conservative (going back to 1979) have refused to make a strong case for state spending as a Good Thing. Unless and until there is a govt that is prepared to do this, and a society that takes it on board, it seems to me that tax avoidance/minimising/downright evasion will remain socially acceptable.

I've often thought it might be a good idea if there were some way of giving those who pay lots of tax some kind of status/social recognition equal to those who give serious money to charity. So, just for example, a special badge to put on your car if you were in the 40% band, and then say an invitation to a Royal Garden party if you paid 50%. The idea being NOT to further materially benefit the rich, but to make being a high level tax payer a positive social status.

Tax avoidance is just common sense.

I take it none of you railing against tax avoidance have any money in ISAs or Premium Bonds?

Or is this envy again, taxing the rich till the pips squeak for the sake of it, even if it sends jobs and private investment overseas?

If loopholes exist the government can choose to close them; it should do so only on the basis of maximizing the gain to the economy as a whole in the long-term (not just to the Treasury).

Low taxes bring growth and jobs from productive private companies. If people are clever enough to lower their tax bill, then good on them.

Quite right. It's a well-known fact that the people who pay the least tax are those who contribute the most.

And that the best way of raising the tax take is to lower tax rates to zero.