It's a truism that many blogs take an unmitigated delight in heaping derision upon the last government, and that those easily led souls also glean a lot of their information from that bastion of xenophobic bigotry and right-wing propaganda, the DFM. But in their haste to condemn the benefit cheats and scroungers, the Tories (in particular) seem to have forgotten something: that the biggest single loss to the UK economy today doesn't emanate from benefit cheats and 'scroungers'.
In fact, there's an estimated £71 billion missing from the UK's exchequer - £71bn that's been taken by criminals from the pockets of every UK Tax payer. That's seventy-one times the estimated fraud (£1bn) of benefits cheats, about whom the DFM gets so exercised.
So who are these criminals and why haven't they been caught? The answer is fairly simple; they're tax dodgers. Read on...
Working for the Public and Commercial services Union and using HM Revenue & Customs data, I estimated tax evasion in the UK to be at least £70bn a year in March 2010. Recent World Bank data on the size of the UK shadow economy suggests a slightly higher figure. In the year to March 2010 HM Revenue & Customs cut more than one in eight of its frontline staff who might tackle this issue.
Beating tax evasion and the £25bn a year UK tax avoidance industry is the best way to rebalance the government’s books. So why is no one in this government willing to embrace this issue and devote the resources to it that would create new jobs, enhance the quality of law and order in this country, uphold democracy and in the long run result in tax cuts for all honest people while maintaining essential public services we all rely on?
Richard Murphy
Director, Tax Research
Interesting stuff. Perhaps those who roundly condemn the less fortunate in our society might look at who is really fleecing the UK econmy.
12 comments:
Anyone who 'roundly condemns the less fortunate in our society' because they are stealing from the rest of us is absolutely right to do so. Tax evasion is not always carried out by the rich man living in a villa, it is probably more likely to be carried out by all those 'less fortunate' people who work cash in hand in cafes, pubs, hotels etc. So, is tax evasion only bad when carried out by a rich person?
Why no comments one wonders.
So, is tax evasion only bad when carried out by a rich person?
No. the point being made, however, was that there is a media-led general condemnation of the 'easy targets' - those on benefits - who account for only a tiny fraction of the amounts being stolen by those who evade tax. And yes - the 'cash-in-hand- economy is part of that process. That, however, pales into insignificance when you look at the amounts not being paid by the likes of the Barclay Brothers, for instance, who give their address as Luxembourg, pay no UK tax, yet are hailed as heroes by the Tories and given knighthoods. The seriously wealthy - those who can most afford to pay their taxes and dues t society - are the very ones who seek to avoid that process, yet many still believe that it's only the disadvantaged who cheat the system.
Why no comments one wonders.
A couple of days ago, and without warning, Google changed the ways in which they displayed comments awaiting moderation, by introducing a 'spam filter'. It wasn't clear how it perated, and wasn't instinctive to use, so the the net result is that all the previous comments for this blog are now gone for good, unfortunately - some 356 of them...
Mexicans, South Americans, Latin Americans, Turks and Cubans: All Coming to Europe via the EU.
It is well known that America is currently being crushed by a tidal wave of Mexican “immigrants” but less well known is the fact that Mexicans, Cubans and Latin and South Americans are also pouring into Europe, courtesy of the European Union.
The absurd situation has come about because of a decision by the Spanish government to grant citizenship to any person who has a far-off distant relation who might have left that country up to 80 years ago at the time of the Spanish Civil War.
According to official figures released by the Spanish government, there have been 161,463 applications for Spanish citizenship under the new law since it came into force in January this year.
Some 95 percent of these applications are from Latin American countries. Another 82,000 Cubans have applied for Spanish passports and it is estimated that at least 150,000 Mexicans are eligible.
Of this number, more than 14,000 have already been given Spanish citizenship and reports claim that there are “huge queues” of passport-seekers forming every day outside the Spanish embassy in Mexico City.
These figures do not, of course, include spouses, children or parents, all of whom will qualify for residence as dependents of EU nationals.
It is well known that Britain is the number one target for immigrants entering the EU because of the lavish benefits on offer in this country and the insane straitjacket of political correctness which prevents scroungers from being deported.
It is not only Spain which has opened the door to even larger numbers of non-EU nationals to enter Europe.
The Bulgarian and Romanian governments have also enacted laws granting passports to people who are considered to have distant connections with those countries.
According to new laws in Bulgaria and Romania, people who have the most tenuous links to those nations and who now live in Moldova, Serbia, Macedonia, Turkey and the Ukraine also qualify for EU-valid passports.
Reports claimed that some 4.7 million people are estimated to be eligible for EU citizenship in this manner.
All of these people are completely unaffected by the nonsense Tory “immigration cap” which only applies to non-EU nationals.
Furthermore, it was the Tory government under John Major which signed Britain up to the “free movement of EU nationals” directive in the first place.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/revealed-the-horrific-trade-in-british-children-for-sex-2053047.html
"TIME TO ARM THE PUBLIC"
100 police stations facing the axe
Up to 100 police stations face closure under cost-cutting plans, and scores more will have their opening hours further reduced, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
All forces across the country are carrying out a review of their building "estates" ahead of funding being cut by up to 25 per cent.
Fears about the impact of the cuts have focused on a decrease in the number of officers, but police chiefs say that buildings and stations will be the first to go. An investigation of all constabularies has uncovered that one in 15 stations has been earmarked to be shut potentially, or replaced by counters and kiosks in supermarkets, cafés, libraries and schools.
police sources have said that the closure of stations is "inevitable" in the current economic climate, but admitted that it was an "emotive and difficult" issue to square with the public.
The disclosures will reignite debates about police presence in communities, especially amid fears that front-line numbers will decrease and neighbourhood police will be axed. The Daily Telegraph disclosed on Saturday that 90 per cent of police stations are not open 24 hours – and more than twice as many Tesco stores are now operating round-the-clock than stations.
"The ugly truth is out there, but you have to want to know it." Sheldon Richman
"the Barclay Brothers, for instance, who give their address as Luxembourg, pay no UK tax, yet are hailed as heroes by the Tories and given knighthoods."
I don't follow your point? They don't live in the UK, so why should they pay UK Tax?
They retain British Citizenship, make their fortune out of the British economy, take advantages of all the tax concessions available to businesses in the UK, were born and bred British yet contrive to avoid paying any tax back by having an accommodation address in Monaco.
"It is discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit." - -- Noel Coward - (1899-1973) British playwright
Carneades I found this whilst surfing, it made me think how very true I am convinced that Plaid are phoney.
The Pseudo-Nationalists and how to Defeat Them.
The primary aim of any new British Nationalist political party is to promote an inclusive British Cultural Nationalism, at the same time as empowering a new form and consciousness of Cultural and Ethno-Nationalism in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland that replaces the civil nationalist political parties presently in power in those regions of Great Britain.
At present Scotland and Wales have civic nationalist parties in power or in parliament and not single Cultural Nationalist or Ethno-Nationalist party in power or participating in elections.
In fact in England, Wales and Scotland any Cultural Nationalist parties or Ethno-Nationalist parties that seek to promote the interests of the indigenous cultures of those nations and also their own indigenous ethnic groups, are regarded as ’extremist’ and ’racist’ by the political and media elite.
This is absurd.
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