Council high earners use 'tax avoidance scheme' says MP

Council high earners use 'tax avoidance scheme' says MP

www.bbc.co.uk

Almost 100 permanent posts at local councils are being filled by people paid through limited companies, the BBC has learned.

Dozens of high-earners are allowed to make their own tax arrangements rather than be paid through the PAYE system.

Public accounts committee chair Margaret Hodge described the situation as a "tax avoidance scheme, which is totally wrong".

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is shocking, what are your thoughts on the matter? Is this a step towards privatisation? The aim it seems is to eventually have everything in private hands, with the richest as new king of the world.
Or maybe this is a simple case of tax evasion?

The chair of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee Margaret Hodge said her committee would pursue the issue.

A link to the committees page below
www.parliament.uk...

I cant wait to see how this one goes. There seems to be a lot of tax evasion these days, from big business to council leaders.

The link in my signature gives an insight into some of the evil forces at work in this world. Please take the time to view if you can.



www.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

41 Obama White House aides owe the IRS $831,000 in back taxes -- and they're not alone

latimesblogs.latimes.com...

Public office is a licence to steal...betcha this is just the tip og the ice berg

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has preached that all Americans should pay their fair share in taxes, but a government report finds that tens of thousands of federal employees — from staffers in Congress to federal agencies and even Obama's executive office — collectively owe the government billions in back taxes.

Data from the Internal Revenue Service found that more than 279,000 federal employees and retirees owed $3.4 billion in back income taxes as of Sept. 30, 2010.

The data showed that 467 employees of the House of Representatives, or about 4.2 percent of the workforce, owed more than $8.5 million. In the Senate, 217 employees, or about 3 percent of the workforce, owed $2.13 million.

Obama's staff was not immune, either, with 36 people in Obama's executive office of nearly 1,800 workers — about 2 percent — owing the government $833,970 in back taxes.

Obama used part of his State of the Union address Tuesday night to promote economic fairness, arguing for changes in the tax code that would create a minimum tax rate of at least 30 percent on anyone making more than $1 million. The finances of one of his chief Republican rivals, Mitt Romney, has been scrutinized because he, like many millionaires, pays a lower rate because most of his income came from investments, which are taxed at a lower rate.

The IRS report attracted the attention of Republicans, who said it undercut the president's argument on taxes.

i'd imagine that some of them may of been self employed contractors/consultants who then got offered the job permanently but they just carried on paying them the same way and who's going to tell the payroll department that they aint paying enough tax?

I worked for a company in the mid to late 90's,as a sub contractor and was paid as such.This was before Labour came to power. The tax man visited the company and looked through the books and told them that as several of the subbie staff (myself included, only been there a year) had been there so long they should be classed as employees and taken on properly, ie paying paye. The company informed them that due to the type of business they couldn't as there could be no work in 4 weeks for months and the company wouldn't be able to survive.

All these public sector employees whether taken on after or not should now fall under paye, but funnily enough since Labour had office this has not been enforced and in fact was actually encouraged, take Ken Livingstone for example, been caught out telling everyone that those useless barstewards who avoid tax dont understand, when in fact he has been doing the same for as long as since Labour got in to power in 97, Typical poxy hypocritical socialist.

The last time Labour were the party of the working man was long before i was born, because even in the 70's they were useless, between them and the unions they managed to help Maggie destroy what major manufacturing we had in this country and then blamed anyone but themselves. We had one of the highest paid, highest skilled workforces in the world but they still wanted more.

reply to post by FFS4000


The article refers to permanent employees not contractors, I suspect this will be include the bosses. Its sounds like a simple case of tax evasion to me....

It seems that there will be some discussion this evening at 8pm via BBC Radio 4's File on 4 programme who submitted a Freedom of Information request to more than 400 local authorities throughout the UK.
www.bbc.co.uk...

Corruption exposed yet again it seems. Once were done with this we can perhaps start looking into kick backs for planning permission.....

When you know the loopholes you use the loopholes. Problem is that too many people know the loopholes that only the rich used to use. The rich are bred to waste money creating jobs for the poor or lower middle class. That's part of Capitalistic conditioning. The upper middle class don't waste their money creating jobs though, they waste their money amongst each other and create no jobs for the lower class.

If capitalism is to be preserved than this has to get fixed. Either these upper middle class pay taxes or they create jobs. Take away these loopholes with secondary loopholes in them that allow this. This requires restructuring the tax code to force the upper middle class to spend their money correctly or pay taxes.

reply to post by Maponos


I was highlighting where someone said they were probably contractors and then taken on but just carried on taking their pay the same way. Back 15 years ago it wouldn't have happened, they would have immediately been moved to PAYE, but doesn't happen anymore, although go and ask your employer to pay all your wages into your company and bypass the PAYE and see what response you get, i can pretty much guarantee they'll tell you to take a running jump, even though they would be paying less overall

reply to post by Maponos


No, it's not some evil corporate plot to sell your mum to pygmies, it's just a tax avoidance measure and quite a simple one. My Mum has been doing it for years. She works in the private sector mind you, but she pays herself through dividends rather than income, which is taxed at a much lower rate than income is.

reply to post by stumason

Well I hope what she is doing is legal and thank you for the view from the establishment
Maybe these simple tax avoidance schemes are why your prescripton charges and tuition fees still exist as discussed in the manifesto on Scotland in your signature link.

www.voteenglish.org...

pretty controversial stuff, I presume a political group funded and run by MI5. Founder is an interesting bloke
en.wikipedia.org...
en.wikipedia.org...
A special type of Tory he is.

Good to see membership is growing though lol

The BBC reported 1,300 members in 2007. Party Membership was around 1,500 in September 2011 after the influx of a number of people joining from the BNP.

en.wikipedia.org...
Freeman of London no less, well in with the City boys then.

Maybe I should get in on some tax avoidance too like the council leaders and city of London banks and other far right leaning Tory/establishment individuals after all everyone is at it right?

I will certainly be voting for independance, I suspect alongside the majority. I further suspect the Welsh will follow suit.

In the society we want, everyone will pay their fair share of tax, especially those who have been appointed to public positions.

reply to post by Maponos


Establishment? Whatever. Why take the condescending tone, anyway? As for the ED, not sure again what you're trying to allude to, but for my own part I support them so England can get an equitable deal within the Union.

If you're wondering why we still have presecription charges and you don't, well that is nothing to do with tax but rather down to the policy of shafting the English at every turn but making sure the Scots get the best deal going. As it stands though, I have no objection to paying the charge as, to be honest, it is cheaper than buying the drugs from the market.

And I do hope you go for independence, although I doubt you will actually win the vote. It will be funny when Tax has to be hiked to cover the massive loss of income from Westminster which keeps the SNP band wagon rolling. And don't even mention the Oil, it's a non-starter of an argument when you actually break down the financials.

EDIT: If you honestly believe Scotland will vote for independence, let alone the Welsh, you are deluded. Current opion polls still split the vote in Scotland at around, at best, 60-40 but more likely will be 70-30.

In Wales, there simply is no movement to speak of. It hovers around the 10% mark if Scotland gets independence and even less if they don't.

reply to post by stumason


Being honest I couldn't resist from a Scottish point of view asking the English to vote on retaining Scotland and Wales is a lot like asking slave owners to vote on whether to abolish slavery.

The rest of the union are sick of corrupt self serving Westminster rule and its funny that as soon as Labour and Conservatives are not longer in charge of the majority of councils in Scotland, we were able to fund free prescriptions and abolish tuition fees. Perhaps you should look into the corruption which is robbing you of these services. Perhaps you should apply a reasonable tax to the City of London, but then they have been independent since the late 1100s so they will continue to tell you to # off. Reform has been delayed for several years, LOL yeah we see who really runs this "union"

Did Thatcher ask Scotland before she piloted poll tax?

We are fed up with the English ruling class, the empire is over and Scotland will vote yes regardless of how many surveys you read. Talk to the people on the street mate. We will be wheeling our grannies down to the polling booths for this one. Its too important.

If you want to keep the union, you should make the "city of london" a part of it and strip them of their special status, its a relic of the Roman empire never mind the British empire

An attempt was made in 1894 to amalgamate the City and the surrounding County of London, but it did not succeed. The City of London therefore survived, and does so to this day, despite its situation within the London conurbation and numerous local government reforms. Regarding representation to Parliament, the City elected four members to the unreformed House of Commons, which it retained after the Reform Act 1832 and into the 20th century.

Originally posted by Maponos
reply to post by stumason

 

Well I hope what she is doing is legal and thank you for the view from the establishment

Maybe these simple tax avoidance schemes are why your prescripton charges and tuition fees still exist as discussed in the manifesto on Scotland in your signature link.

www.voteenglish.org...

pretty controversial stuff, I presume a political group funded and run by MI5. Founder is an interesting bloke
en.wikipedia.org...
en.wikipedia.org...
A special type of Tory he is.

Good to see membership is growing though lol

The BBC reported 1,300 members in 2007. Party Membership was around 1,500 in September 2011 after the influx of a number of people joining from the BNP.

en.wikipedia.org...
Freeman of London no less, well in with the City boys then.

Maybe I should get in on some tax avoidance too like the council leaders and city of London banks and other far right leaning Tory/establishment individuals after all everyone is at it right?

I will certainly be voting for independance, I suspect alongside the majority. I further suspect the Welsh will follow suit.

In the society we want, everyone will pay their fair share of tax, especially those who have been appointed to public positions.

Did you miss that one of Labours leftie favourites was also doing this while complaining about tax avoiding Barstewards 'that just dont get it'.

Left or right they're all at it, it's just more hypocritical coming from someone complaining about it

reply to post by Maponos


Dude, we're singing from the same hymn sheet! The only difference is that England get's treated even worse than the other nations. We don't even have a voice, but rather get shafted on such things like prescriptions and tution fees because of Scottish MP's voting on English matters. Go look it up. The Tuition fees were only passed because Scots MP's voted for it, giving the Blair Government a slim majority. Without them, it wouldn't have passed in the commons... I will also point out that the largest proponents of Imperialism and the vast majority of colonists were Scottish. Many of our recent PM's have been Scots too.

That, in a nutshell, is what the ED are about. Fair treatment for England. Of course, they have other policies as well, such as the anti-EU stance which I also agree with.

I will say, however, that I have no deep seated desire to see Scotland leave the Union, but when pro-Independence types crop up and try to crap all over England, it get's up my nose as we're in the same boat but just down the leaky end.

reply to post by stumason


Ok fair point, I actually sympathize with many parts of England, particularly the north, we view Geordies as being closer to us than to London and I think they sometimes feel the same?

I hope you guys can find your voice as Westminster (on behalf of City of London) have been screwing everyone outside of London and the home counties for a long long time.