I spent 2 years in Frankfurt but not for taxation reasons, no the 'brain drain' in my case.....

Those bits sum it up.

The Guardian make you laugh, putting a picture of Hamilton on the front page, due to avoiding £3.3m of VAT on his plane, while they just have a sub-headline about Apple casually moving hundreds of billions of pounds from Ireland to Jersey. Same t with the Sun etc and the 3 saps from Mrs Brown's Boys.

Don't worry about perspective, just whack a picture of a famous (or even semi-famous) person up and let the witch hunt continue.

Optimistic as ever

I got to agree with this. I don't give one hoot about Hamilton getting some of the VAT back on the purchase of his plane. I avoid tax all the time, I travel a bit and rarely buy aftershave unless I'm at the airport, he just bought a plane at the airport.

Mrs Browns boys is different, to me that's tax evasion, it appears they live and work here but pay nothing. It may be legal, maybe not but that needs to stop, if the rest of us have to pay.

But that is small fry compared to the likes of Apple and Amazon etc. That is a much, much, much bigger problem.

I'm surprised not to have seen a few politicians caught up in this last round of revelations.

Edited by Mr Palaceman (07 Nov 2017 4.33pm)

"You can lead a horse to water but a pencil must be lead"

Stan Laurel

It's whether HMRC see it as that, or avoidance, that counts though.

I have no idea, but do they not all live in Ireland?

Optimistic as ever

Loans can be made on varying basis to and from companies as long as an agreement is in place. I'm currently looking at loaning my own company sum money to get it off the ground. I can LEGITIMATELY charge the company interest (as long as its reasonable and not say 10%pa) and the term of the loan can be indefinite...which I guess is a similar thing to what's happening here..the company is loaning the individual the money on an indefinite basis...or buying things as 'advised' by the individual for them then to use at heir leisure.

The Voice of Reason In An Otherwise Mediocre World

I have no idea if the Mrs Browns Boys actors did something wrong. However this can be easily fixed by HMRC. As I understand it the BBC paid these people in full on the assumption that they would pay the appropriate tax. The solution would be that the BBC and others should be ordered to deduct tax up front e.g. PAYE. If these people believe that they are entitled to a rebate then they can discuss that with HMRC. Dress it up anyway you like but these people are being paid a salary so should be taxed accordingly.

Disappointed at the media focus on Bono and Lewis Hamilton. I may be wrong but neither of them are domiciled or pay tax in the UK. Whilst I don't like either of them surely their tax affairs are a matter for where they live?

I am more concerned with Jersey and other offshore tax havens which are "British" helping the likes of Apple get away with it.

One more point