[GJM] [Intertax] Morality (!!!!) of Tax.

[robert searle]

Dear All,

       In Transfinancial Economics, or TFE taxation is
regarded as old hat, and unnecessary in the 21th
century. However, I include the article below.


R.Searle.



--- "Picciotto, Sol" <s.picciotto at lancaster.ac.uk>
wrote:

> A resounding statement of the importance of morality
> in tax in the UK's main left-of-centre newspaper
> today.
>  
> cheers
> Sol
>
*************************************************************
>  
> (Prof.) Sol Picciotto
>  
> home: 
> 6 Willes Terrace
> Leamington Spa CV311DL, UK
> phone +44 (0)1926-429600
> fax +44 (0)1524-525212
> email: s.picciotto at lancs.ac.uk
> work: 
> Lancaster University Law School
> Lancaster LA1 4YN, UK
> fax +44 (0)1524-848137
> web 
> http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fss/law/staff/picciotto.htm
> 
> **********************************************
> Taxes are a moral good, and avoiding your fair share
> is a moral disgrace 
> 
> A new review must go back to first principles and
> ask why the rich pay so little when they own almost
> everything 
> 
> Polly Toynbee
> Friday September 15, 2006
> The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>  
> 
> 
> 
> Is the tax system too complicated? The CBI and other
> rightwing critics protest at a "rococo" bureaucracy
> where each year the budget now fills not just one
> but two hefty tomes. Tax accountants, they say, are
> enjoying a bonanza, as starting salaries for the
> newly qualified jumped from £37,000 to £47,000 in 18
> months. Oh for simplicity! they cry. But many of
> those voices are deeply disingenuous, to put it very
> politely indeed. Down-right bogus is nearer the
> mark. 
> 
> By chance through the letterbox came an interesting
> advertisement offering an "Investment Strategy and
> Inheritance Tax Planning Seminar" from top financial
> advisers. What better way to listen in? I signed up.
> This turned out to be no hole-in-the-corner firm,
> but run by the most distinguished names in the world
> of finance. So in the plush Mayfair offices
> displaying a brass plate advertising "Wealth
> Management", the executive sales manager laid out
> his wares to an audience of late middle-aged and
> elderly persons of (presumed) property, with buffet
> and wine to follow. 
> 
> Here was his pitch. Labour (hiss, sneer) has
> introduced 50 new taxes, (gasp) but we can show you
> how to avoid them, all quite legally. Gordon Brown's
> inheritance tax is a truck (cue Powerpoint picture
> of huge death truck) coming down the road to get
> you, unless you take our advice. There followed a
> string of wheezes: that they are all legal is
> surprising. 
> 
> But watch out, he said. There are pitfalls unless
> you take our advice. You may think you are domiciled
> abroad, but remember tax exile Richard Burton's
> disaster: because his body was buried in Wales, the
> Inland Revenue deemed him still residing in the UK
> and took £2.4m in inheritance tax (IHT). Ditto tax
> exile Charles Clore, buried in Hereford. (Gasps of
> horror. Have they no mercy?) 
> 
> So how do you avoid IHT? On your behalf, we monitor
> every twist and turn of Treasury policy. The Inland
> Revenue never officially approves any scheme and it
> does keep closing them down. But we know this one
> works as we've had Kevin Prosser QC check it through
> and he's the guy the Revenue uses in court for its
> own toughest cases. (Checking his Pump Court Tax
> Chambers website afterwards, they advertise him as
> "a real fighter".) If the Revenue does change the
> rules again, it never makes it retrospective so
> you'll always be OK with existing schemes. So,
> here's how to give all your assets away for IHT
> purposes and yet you can still spend what you like
> while you are alive. A client of ours just saved
> £3.5m from IHT this way. (Gasps of admiration.) You
> can do this with a second property and all your
> other assets. 
> 
> There followed a diabolically complex scheme that
> involved setting up two trusts, with one trust
> lending money to the other. On death, the first
> trust demands the money back from the second, and
> hey presto, the only money left in the second is
> £285k - the zero rate IHT allowance. Or something
> like that. Frankly, I doubt many in the room grasped
> the finer points: only the company's own lawyers
> drawing up special wills know how to do it. But
> never mind fine points, the very gross point is
> this: these fiendishly clever, highly-paid people
> work night and day to stay one jump ahead of less
> well-paid Revenue staff, while sneering at Labour
> and the taxman. 
> 
> So whenever you hear City financiers or CBI
> spokespersons protesting that the tax system is "too
> complex" and should be "simplified", just ask them
> to declare precisely what kind of cat's cradle tax
> planning regimes they have devised for themselves to
> avoid paying their fair whack. If they want simple
> and transparent, let's just start with their own
> affairs. 
> 
> Labour has tried outlawing schemes wholly designed
> to avoid tax, raising another £5bn a year, but still
> the tax-avoidance business booms. Much complexity
> comes from chasing scams like these - entirely
> legal, but defying the spirit of the law. What kind
> of ethical culture is this? It is mainstream: this
> firm is founded by the most highly respected names
> in finance. 
> 
> The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has just
> launched a review of the entire tax system, led by
> Sir James Mirrlees, Nobel prize winner for studies
> of the world's optimal tax systems. It is time to go
> back to first principles and ask why the bottom 10%
> pay a higher marginal rate than the well off and why
> the rich pay so little in a society where they own
> almost everything. 
> 
> The review also needs to challenge the Englishman's
> strange delusion that the lottery-win gains he makes
> on the value of his castle should never be taxed.
> Council tax is still valued at 1981 prices with no
> higher bands to capture true value. And why do
> people think parents' homes should be exempt from
> inheritance tax, to be cashed in by middle-aged
> children with homes of their own? 
> 
> The review should conduct great public debates and
> use polls not just to test opinion but to discover
> what approaches might reconnect people with a
> realistic sense of the public good their taxes do.
> The wicked attitudes of the tax-avoiders seep down
> even to those who gain most from taxes. The rich
> command every outlet of opinion that says tax is
> always a "burden", low taxes good and high taxes
> bad. Few politicians dare remind people that what
> they value most - their health, their children's
> education, their safety, the pleasantness of streets
> or the beauty of public spaces - are all bought by
> taxes: the pound in their pocket only buys life's
> lesser things. The rich who cheat and avoid are
> contemptible: the review should revive a sense of
> the moral good of taxes and the moral disgrace of
> avoiding your fair share. 
> 
> The Liberal Democrats are rolling up their sleeves
> for a good tax fight next week, as the leadership
> tries to drop one of the party's few unique
> signature policies - the 50p top tax rate. As the
> only party daring to suggest that the booming
> earnings of the top 1% should be taxed a bit more,
> the rebels, led by Evan Harris MP, fight to keep it
> (slightly amended) as the flag that drew Labour
> voters to them. But the fear is that people who
> understand little about taxes think any rise will
> hit them too. 
> 
> Taxes do three traditional things: raise cash for
> public services, redistribute from richer to poorer,
> or induce people to change their behaviour - less
> drinking, smoking and driving cars. But that 50p
> rate does something else besides. It is a totem in
> its own right. It stands as public recognition that
> society does not approve of galloping inequality.
> With City bonuses this year at over £21bn, earnings
> themselves could and should be fairer: this small
> extra tax band at least expresses disapproval. 
> 
> Governments shrink from major tax reviews: a few
> rich losers make mega-decibels of political
> complaint while the winners quietly pocket their
> gains without a murmur of gratitude. But when the
> rightwing OECD has just declared the UK as the
> world's "Goldilocks economy" - not too hot or cold
> with strong growth and low inflation - there is no
> better time to risk radical reform. If the IFS, that
> bastion of fiscal probity, devises fairer taxes, the
> government should listen. 
> 
> polly.toynbee at guardian.co.uk
> <mailto:polly.toynbee at guardian.co.uk> 
=== message truncated ===> _
> JPBerlin - Mailbox und Politischer Provider
> intertax Mailingliste - Eine Mailingliste im Rahmen
> von Attac
> 
> intertax at listen.attac.de
> Zu Optionen und zum Austragen:
> http://listi.jpberlin.de/mailman/listinfo/intertax
> ________________________________________
> Eine andere Welt braucht Unterst&amp;uuml;tzung:
> Bei unseren Kampagnen (www.attac.de) mit Spenden
> (https://www.attac.de/spenden.php)
> oder durch Mitgliedschaft
> (https://www.attac.de/mitglied.php)JPBerlin -
> Mailbox und Politischer Provider
> intertax Mailingliste - Eine Mailingliste im Rahmen
> von Attac
> Zu Optionen und zum Austragen:
> http://listi.jpberlin.de/mailman/listinfo/intertax



		
___________________________________________________________ 
All New Yahoo! Mail – Tired of Vi at gr@! come-ons? Let our SpamGuard protect you. http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html