[Finance] If you were given a totally legal way of paying less tax would you take it?

[Perfidious Albion]

"The laws just need to be tighter so that if it is not fair then there are quick and easy ways to change the laws."

I'd agree with this statement in the above post. It is the Govt. Job to collect taxes and be smart enough not to leave loopholes. Some might need International agreement.
As a person, of course I would take any legal means to reduce tax. Only a fool would not. I do not have to think of my public image or huge endorsements riding on that, so no reason not to.

 

[beorhthelm]

I'd agree with this statement in the above post. It is the Govt. Job to collect taxes and be smart enough not to leave loopholes. Some might need International agreement.

there's no "might" about it. some keep bringing up tax advisors orchestrating this with contacts in the treasury, thats true on the margins. the major avoidance are simply down to internationally agreed accountancy practices being followed. they aren't just within the law, they come about because the law tells multinational companies how to do this. the companies book sales in the lowest tax jurisdictions. but the consequences of international tax agreement are worse for many nations, so they wont agree, while talking about how something "must be done" and blaming it on offshore tax havens as a distraction.

 

[Randsta]

Investing in your pension is a good legal way of paying less tax / getting tax back .....

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

And how long ago was that?

A couple of years......... but the regulations won't have changed.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

It wouldn't matter if they added another 1,000,000 staff members. HMRC is the most disorganised organisation that I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with. It's made up of hundreds of components that don't work together or communicate with each other. Every time they try to improve things, they make it worse.

Crapgemini have taken it downhill since taking over the Inland Revenue IT contract from EDS back in 2004 - I've worked perm and contract on HMRC systems on and off for about 7 of the last 16 years. They've now booted out 3rd party suppliers Capgemini/Fujitsu/BT/Accenture and created their own wholly owned IT subsidiary "Revenue & Customes Digital Technology Service" [RCDTS] - will take 5 years min before anything starts to show. The one big change I noticed in my last stint Jul-16 to Jul-17 is that they now recognise the tax payer [individuals and companies] as their "customer" and the ethos of making it easy / easier for tax payers to pay their tax digitally [online] is growing in momentum now.

I can confirm that many of the HMRC systems do "talk" to each other as well as connections with other UK organisations data and other global Inland Revenue organisations too - there is a big-brother in data collection terms - they know a lot more about your financial affairs then you might realise - OFA = nuff said.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

If the rules are "wrong", then change the rules.

Its how rugby was invented.

I fail to understand the moral outrage of some people against actions that are perfectly legal and not even (morally) wrong.

 

[BadFish]

Would I/do I take advantage of official ways of reducing tax such as ISAs? Yes. Would I enter into a scheme that was clearly a dodge via a loophole? No. Big difference between doing a couple of cash jobs and offsetting nearly all of your tax and yet one is illegal. I'm not a raving 'leftie' or Mother Theresa type but firmly believe everyone should pay their fair share where possible. Not that I do cash jobs as it isn't much of a thing in IT but would I feel bad if I paid full tax on my salary but didn't declare a bit on the side? No. But this is all about degrees and it seems to be very highly paid people abusing the system to pay as little tax as possible which seems highly immoral to me.

This is spot on.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

 

[San Siro]

Also if I was given a totally illegal way to avoid paying tax which was impossible for the inland revenue to know about then I wouldn't pay tax.

 

[BadFish]

Tax is legalised theft.

Avoid tax wherever possible by any means.

Assuming we need to pay for schools, roads, defence, hospitals etc

What would your preferred system for financing public ventures be?

 

[vegster]

I have taken advantage of the marvellous Tax Avoidance scheme set up by recent governments..... it's called raising the tax threshold. In my view this supports and encourages employers paying the Minimum Wage or close to it, the government are effectively supporting poor paying companies....the standard rate of Income Tax is 20% but I only pay that on my earnings over £11,500 pa that means I am paying 20% tax on about £6 K ! If I was paid more, say £20k, then I would be paying 20% on £8.5 K pa and thus contribute more to support our NHS, Education and Social care to name a few.

I am amazed that the likes of lidl and Aldi can pay their staff about £2 an hour more than comparable British supermarkets yet sell their products at prices much less than comparable British supermarkets ?

 

[BadFish]

I leave it to my accountant, he’s as honest as the day is long.

......the longer the daylight the less he does wrong