For more than thirty years the politics of the UK and most other western democracies has been dominated by a notable and consistent adherence to a single consensus on tax issues. That persistent policy approach has been built around what has been described as the Washington Consensus. That agenda, which translated neoliberal thinking into policy prescriptions, […]
Posts Tagged ‘Tax dodging’
Five-point plan to curb tax cheating by big firms and the super-rich
Jun 28th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.My letter on a five-point plan to curb tax cheating by big firms and the super-rich was published in today’s Guardian. For the benefit of Left Futures readers I reproduce it in full here:
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Tough on benefits,velvet soft on top pay & tax avoidance
Jun 26th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.So Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, cheers us up today by telling us that if a quarter of the annual tax receipts foregone through either avoidance, evasion or uncollected debt were actually levied, it could cut income tax by 2p in the £ (roughly £10bn). It would have been better if he’d said […]
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A Tale of Two Frauds
Jun 18th, 2012 by Andrew Fisher.In 2009, a Lancashire mother was found guilty of defrauding the state of £45,000. She claimed over £45,000 in housing benefit, council tax benefit and income support by not including her husband’s details on the claim forms. She pleaded guilty and was jailed for 16 months. A week ago, two men from Leeds were also found guilty of […]
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Tax lawyers make monkeys out of the government
Apr 11th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.As John McEnroe famously said at Wimbledon, ‘You cannot be serious?’ How can Osborne pretend he’s serious about saying ‘aggressive tax avoidance’ is ‘morally repugnant’ when a mere 2 weeks after his budget imposing a 15% stamp duty rate on tax avoiders who put expensive property in an offshore company (so that when they sell, […]
