How do you like paying taxes? I’d guess you’re like me: you pay them gladly. If we didn’t, the infrastructure of society would collapse – hospitals, roads, schools – the lot. So when the time comes to fill in our tax forms, or when we look at our pay cheque and see the chunk that’s gone in income tax, we smile with quiet satisfaction. Right?
Well, maybe there’s where we part ways. I agree that without taxes the state wouldn’t work; but I also detest having to pay taxes. I tend to think how much of this is going for a new generation of Trident nuclear submarines or David Cameron’s pension, rather than how much on sick people and education and the rest. In fact I’ll be blunt: if I knew a way – a legal way – in which I could avoid paying half my present taxes, I’d grab it. And I suspect you would too.
So what’s all the brouhaha about the Panama papers which show a lot of rich people throughout the world had their money where it had to pay no tax (including David Cameron’s da, at a time when David Cameron was giving out about exactly these off-shore schemes, describing them as ‘dodgy’).
If we’re honest, most of us would like to be able to do as David’s da has done. There’s no law against it, so why not? Part of our indignation about seeing Cameron’s da, and Simon Cowell, and Willian of Chelsea FC, and all the rest, getting off with paying nothing is that they’re bulging with the stuff in the first place. It’s the hugely rich like President Putin who can afford to access schemes that mean they get to keep virtually all of their loot. The rest of us can’t, so of course we’re indignant when the fat cats slyly siphon off funds to Panama or wherever. It confirms our belief that the world is organized for the benefit of the great and greedy, and makes us all the more eager to grab a loophole if by some chance it should come our way.
Finally, of course, despite the fact that we live in a (more or less) democratic state, most of us are agin the government. They tell us what to do at every turn, they take money from us, they fine us for doing 37 mph when we should have been doing 30 mph. You think we’re going to pass up on a chance to get away with something in our taxes?
If this cavalier attitude to taxation shocks you, I’m sorry, because I hate to see people pretend to be shocked when they’re not.
“Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.” Yeats
I would be horrified if I thought I would end up on a trolley today, to await treatment in a hospital. Trolley waits are increasing. I would be horrified if I was waiting to see a consultant and then have my appointment cancelled as the person had left and there was no one to take his place. Health service vacancies inform us that funding the health service is not a priority. The River Shannon claimed the body of a pensioner recently as suicide rates continue to remain a source of concern throughout the country.
I was shocked to see the shambles in Dáil Éireann on 6 April 2016. Six weeks after an election, the Dáil looked more like a pantomime than a legislative body. The electorate want change for the better, not rotating Taoisigh pending another election. Politicians may have the luxury of dithering and waffling, however, the acid test of revelations from the Panama Papers will become apparent as decisions made by transnational corporations result in job losses in the tax haven that is the Emerald Isle.
At least in this time warp, we are past shock and horror at the prospect of protests and tyrefests courtesy of the taxpayer. What next, health warnings on tyres?
Don’t stop at Income tax. Let’s give the rates a go too. In these times of austerity can we afford millions of hanging baskets, new monolingual signs and all the rest of the stuff bought with other peoples money. Can we afford to subsidize bonfires? Start at the bottom and wreck the pyramid.
Wreck the pyramid and we are in to denial. The International Fund for Ireland (IFI) announced this week that it would be giving £109,857 to the Twaddell Residents Association. The cost of policing the protest to date is believed to be in excess of £19 million, equivalent to £24,000 a day. A further £756,000 will be shared among seven community groups as part of a peace wall programme. At this rate, the little people will need Darby O’Gill.
not shocked one iota, I’m afraid, in the words of an American woman, Helmsley, I believe her name was “only the little people pay taxes” that’s you and me Jude……………
Bridget
“only the little people pay taxes” that’s you and me Jude..”
And I’m not even sure about Jude!
new tax on dogs from april ….must have your dog chipped millions n millions of dogs in the uk a tenner a go,dogs die,pups born more tenners bet the price goes up year on year not for the money of course.lol.only chips mine will be getting are if any fall of the plate at supper time.
The issues which the Panama Papers raise, Esteemed Blogmeister, are not only financial but also philological.
To wit to hoo; what is the difference between Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion? Picking up your grand-uncle Phil’s pocket dictionary (the Phil, one assumes, EB, is short for Philology) the Collins Gem, one comes across the following, erm, gem:
-evade: avoid, elude.
So, in opting to either evade or avoid the paying of one’s taxes, the pedantic putative pickpocket of the national funds is immediately stumped. Though the second e-word there could possibly offer an out. Especially where Panama is concerned.
Involving as it seemingly does a measure of collusion between the corporate and the individual, perhaps the term Collusionary Elusion might be apropos. Gunky, though the neologism might be. Tempting though it is to throw one’s brimmed straw hat of Ecuadorian origin at it.
Thankfully, as an inheritor of both Old Money and traditional fiscal propriety this in a dilemma which this particular Warbeck has never been faced with.
In fact, the number of instances where he has to choose between the A and E words are blessedly few and have nothing at all to do with the m or s words: moola and squirrel (verb).
Indeed, one has heard of sad cases of would be less than artful tax dodgers who have so done their own heads in, arguing the toss between Avoidance and Evasion that they have ended up in the aptly named (gulp) A and E unit of the local hospital. Some, alas, even ending up in the corridors of same on what is colloquially known as the Lolly Trolley.
One is grateful so that the only time when one was faced with the thankless task of picking le mot juste was on a legendary occasion when a box of tacks spilled all over the floor of one’s study. Just when one had thought one had got the pick correct, the O word intervened;
-Ouch !
Haircut is a word which made an unexpected appearance in the vocabulary of the monetary cohort some time ago, as in:
-The European Central Bank has imposed a haircut on the spendthrift member states of the Union.
The jury is still out as to whether it will make the eventual cut.
As far as one is aware the profession of barber in a work of fiction has so far been confined to Pimlico and Seville, though one is, as always, open to correction on this question of fictional scissorshands. One profession, however, which involves a different kind of cut, has definitely been so linked to the country in question is the spy novel by John Le Carre:
-The Tailor of Panama.
The fallout of the publication of this book had both literary and legal aspects. The latter involving the Law of Unintended Consequence. Which took the form of a literary title fight in the letter columns of the Guardian which went the full fifteen rounds. In the blue corner was the conservative author, while in the red corner was the whiggish prig, Salman Rushdie. Skin and heirlooms were reported to have flown for the duration of this toe-to-toe set-to.
Another non-financial instance of where one is faced with the choice between the A and E words is, for a change, a joyful one. As when the dystopian Diarmuid Connolly of the forward line of the Dublin football team is giving the unfortunate backs of the opposing team in Croke Park, the slip.
Quite coincidentally, and while the topic du jour is moola, this sporting arena where the footballers have, surprisingly, never been tempted to link their in-payments with the concept of the offshore, brings to mind the Man with the Midas Touch.
Now, there is NO suggestion that this man, although his global-shaped business interests girth the planet, and share the Caribbean with the country du jour, is in anyway mentioned in connection with the Panama Papers.
Other papers, yes, but not the Panama ones.
Now, as is well-known, perhaps even too well-known, the never less than exquisitely tailored Denis O’Brien (for it is he !) is not only the Man with Midas Touch but is also, indeed, The Man with the Media Touch. With the latter quite possibly following form the former.
This means the Media Man with the Midas Touch can each day, every day, 24/ 7, going forward, year on year , take us by the eye and by the ear, Guide us, Chide us, Deride us (!), Divide us, Hide from us. Decide for us, through the large-bore conduit of the Sindo, Irish Dependent, Todayfm and Newstalk fm
Republic of Irony alert: whatever about the newspapers, the two wireless stations included in the truncated list both nourish a visceral loathing of the games of Paddy Stink and Mickey Muck. (cf, Matt ‘I’m a Leeds fan to the death’ Cooper of Toadyfm, oops, Todayfm to the Off the Ball shows on Cruisetalkfm, oops, Newstalkfm).
Now, the Media Man with the Midas Touch was schooled in the civilized surrounds of the High School in salubrious South Dublin. An educated guess would suggest that Bogball and Stickfighting were banned from the sporting curriculum of this enlightened estabsh.
Consider now, for a moment, the case of the equally elegantly tailored Michael Lowry, TD. By way of contrast, the above brace of banned games were, in fact, the only games on the sports curriculum of his alma mater, Thurles CBS, with stickfighting, in essence, the only game in town.
(Just what IS it out the surname Lowry and the stick-word?)
Michael Lowry went on to become the chief bag-man for the refurbishment of the premier venue of stickfighting, Semple Stadium. Before scaling even loftier heights. Listen to what the New Testament of our Times, Wikipedia has to say:
‘Denis O’Brien set up and chaired the Esat Digifone consortium which acquired a mobile phone licence in the 1990s.The Moriarty Tribunal found ALMOST beyond doubt that O’Brien was awarded the contract due to payments he made to Michael O Leary, then the communications minister, who unduly influenced the bidding process. This contract formed the basis of O’Brien’s fortune’
The key word, here, ar ndoigh/ of course is: ALMOST.
One’s inner Tailor of Punama is almost tempted to suggest something else but will restrict oneself to :
-Lovely hurling!
We all have to pay our taxes otherwise society basically wouldn’t function or even exist. If you want an idea of what society would be like without taxes watch the film “Mad Max” or even play the PlayStation 4 game “Fall Out”. Look at the outrage when benefits get cut, millions of people out protesting. Now imagine if there wasn’t any benefits system at all? Literally Anarchy. Imagine if there was no money to pay the wages of police officers or soldiers? Again Anarchy.
This whole Panama scandal is nothing new and it just confirms what we have known for decades: the rich being so greedy that they don’t even want to pay their taxes. I think that’s the point here, its the fact that even if those rich that are dodging tax paid their tax like the rest of us they would still be very wealthy. Can you imagine if the average joe, in this world of very easy communication, online banking, etc managed to avoid taxes? There would be laws put in within 24 hours and the harshest penalties possible for anyone dodging tax. Indeed, I may be wrong here but I think the penalty for dodging taxes in the middle ages was death. I know “clipping” (clipping was the act of basically shaving off bits of silver/gold of coins, then melting the scraps of gold/silver into new, illegal coins. It was seriously damaging the economy of nations in the middle ages because the true value of the coin couldn’t be determined because bits of gold/silver were being clipped off, hence “clipping”) gave an automatic death sentence.
So what’s to be done?
Well for a start the rich need to be paying their way, the poor and middle classes do it, so the greedy at the top of the pyramid have to do the same. Trillions, not billions, literally TRILLIONS of pounds are being stored away by countless rich people worldwide. No wonder the world’s economy is in the state its in and no wonder so many people are in poverty, because these plutocrats aren’t playing fair.
The EU needs a system like the USA has. Now I don’t know the details of the system but I know the general out workings. In the USA if your an American citizen it doesn’t matter if you move away to France, Ireland, Russia, China, etc wherever, you have to still pay tax to the United States Government AND the country where you are resident or a citizen of. So its basically paying double tax. Boris Johnson was born in the USA and has never lived there or only lived there for very short periods. He still gets tax bills by the USA because he’s a United States citizen. Indeed he was complaining about it and is planning to gave up his citizenship.
If we had a system like this in the EU and other countries like Russia adopted it then it would get the tax the rich owe. We need also to close the loopholes that businesses use to dodge tax. Every business has to pay the proper rate of tax. In the South the tax rate for corporations is 12.5% but yet many don’t even pay that amount, even though its very small compared to other nations. That’s a disgrace, they should pay the full 12.5%, its as simple as that.
Tiny countries like Panama, Costa Rica, etc and small dependencies like the Isle of Man, Jersey, etc cant continue to provide safe sanctuary for the richest of the rich. They are doing a grave injustice to hundreds of millions of people worldwide and it should not be tolerated.
Do I believe anything will change? Not a chance, not with the current British/US Governments and with the likes of Putin in charge in Russia. The reality is we don’t live in a democracy, its an illusion, we’re allowed to voice an opinion but that’s all, its very rarely ever taken on board. What we live in and have always lived in for thousands of years is a Plutocracy, where small groups of extremely powerful and rich individuals pull the strings of Presidents, Prime Ministers, Bankers and even some Religious leaders. Proof? 1% of the population of the Planet own over 90% of the World’s Wealth……
Surprised at you, Jude, for falling for the US Panama propaganda about Vladimir.
BelTel today has Wikileaks complaining that the Yanks are bringing leaks journalism into disrepute by smearing Putin without any direct evidence.
Some of his friends (not Poroshenko) may be involved: ergo Putin is guilty!
I take your point, Sherdy – he is not named. But since there are so many uber-rich Ruskies around I’d be surprised if there’s not some truth/connection in it.
Sherdy
The US is certainly capable of smearing him but there is plenty of evidence of his wealth apart from the Panama Papers, including palace and yacht of course.
You think maybe he is a man of the people?
Well said sherdy. The US has its fingerprints all over this. Another attempt at ‘get Putin’. I would love to see the accounts of bush,Clinton Blair etc.
They don’t make journalists anymore, they just just hire nodding dogs.