MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: Do only little people resent tax avoidance? And does the Government really have the heart to tackle this problem?

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MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: Do only little people resent tax avoidance? And does the Government really have the heart to tackle this problem?

July 8th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

By
Daily Mail Comment

PUBLISHED:

16:04 EST, 7 July 2012

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UPDATED:

16:04 EST, 7 July 2012

Chancellor George Osborne may sound tough on tax dodgers, but what are the HMRC doing about it?

When George Osborne attacked tax avoiders as morally repugnant last March, he must have thought this would bring him easy political gains.

It has not worked out quite like that. Rather a lot of Tory donors and sympathisers have turned out to be tax avoiders.

And some major companies seem to be able to persuade Revenue officials to interpret their tax liabilities quite generously.

Meanwhile, it is painfully obvious that Her Majesty’s Revenue Customs are simply not very good at combating the increasingly ingenious schemes of tax avoidance experts.

This is especially annoying to normal taxpayers, who never dream of tax avoidance, yet find HMRC hot on their trail, suspicious and demanding, even when they try to submit accurate and timely tax returns.

The sneering remark of the American hotel magnate Leona Helmsley that ‘only little people pay taxes’ seems to be coming true here as well.

Now, thanks to Channel 4’s Dispatches programme, we learn that members of HMRC’s board have links to companies which themselves face suggestions that they engage – quite legally – in tax avoidance.

If this is morally repugnant, as the Chancellor says it is, then it is quite clearly a conflict of interest for anyone connected with the tax system to be even remotely connected with such activities.

The public are entitled to wonder if HMRC, or the Government as a whole, really have their hearts in reducing avoidance to a bare minimum. Or are they merely pretending to be concerned, in the hope of diverting the anger and discontent of ordinary dutiful taxpayers?

Dear IOC, stop this silly grandiose game

Millions of people, here and abroad, are looking forward with keen anticipation to the London Olympic Games, and they will not be disappointed when the tremendous spectacle begins.

But Britain, and especially London, will pay a price. Security against the terrorist menace is a constant worry, and one that cannot be ignored.

There is also the top-heavy bureaucracy of the International Olympic Committee. Baron de Coubertin’s idealistic hope, that the Games would be a sort of sporting utopia, has instead created a monster.

The London 2012 Olympic stadium in east London in April: What is the IOC building up to?

The IOC is so self-important that it acts like a rather grandiose despot on a state visit. Its silliest and most pompous demand is for special traffic lanes down which its officials can be whisked, like the Soviet politburo of old in their armoured Zil limousines.

Now that work has begun on this scheme, its absurdity is obvious. If the rest of us have to put up with speed bumps for the sake of safety, then why not the Olympic elite?

As the opening day approaches, we can expect many more problems, as infuriated drivers find themselves thrust aside by convoys of Olympic potentates.

It would do the Olympic cause no end of good if the IOC could find it in their hearts to drop this requirement.

Best of British, Andy!

For once, a British player is actually doing well in one of the many sports we gave to the world. Better still, Andy Murray has fought his way into the finals of our very own Wimbledon, which for far too long has been a stage for foreign champions.

There is something particularly thrilling about this moment, in a country which has grown all too used to living on distant memories in sport and other things.

We wish Andy Murray luck, strength and endurance – and victory – in the biggest match of his life.