Lewis Hamilton avoided tax.
The Formula One world champion, Lewis Hamilton, one of the world’s richest sportspeople, avoided paying European taxes on his private jet using an Isle of Man scheme that is to be investigated by HM Revenue and Customs.
The big four accountancy firm EY and Appleby, the law firm at the centre of the Paradise Papers leak, helped Hamilton and dozens of other clients set up seemingly artificial leasing businesses through which they rented their own jets from themselves.
If this scheme is illegal, then he and others evaded tax, which is indeed illegal. If they were merely avoiding tax then it was legal and no one else’s business and I simply do not care. Indeed, every penny that is kept from the greedy, grasping avaricious hands of the state is a penny well spent as opposed to pissed away on unnecessary government bureaucracy, insane surveillance databases, parasitic NGOs and fake charities.
All I have seen this past few days is the Grauniad and others engaging in the nasty, spiteful politics of envy – “he’s richer than me, he should pay is fair share, not fair waaaaah!”
Let’s be clear here – there is no such thing as fair share. There is what the law demands and not a penny more. Avoidance is legal. Indeed it is the duty of every taxpayer to do whatever they can to avoid paying a penny more than what the law demands. Avoidance is not evasion.
So, do fuck off and grow up. If this scheme is illegal, then fine, HMRC will prosecute. Otherwise, nothing to see here.
Did you hear the Moneybox program on radio on Saturday? There was an “expert” commenting on the IR35 contracting rules who said on numerous occasions – without contradiction by the presenter – that the Government needed to implement “anti-avoidance legislation”.
I despair. I really do.
I avoid tax every day – don’t you?. I use my personal tax allowance. I don’t buy cigarettes. I turn the heating down. What next? Compulsory thermostat settings so we all use extra fuel so HMRC gets the VAT? Enforced smoking so they get the tobacco revenue?
Here’s an irony; I used to pay more tax pre IR35 than I did after the rules were implemented.
I love to puncture the bubble of the sanctimonious twats who are so thick they conflate tax avoidance with tax evasion.
I ask them if they have ISAs – usually the reply is “yes”.
“Great” – I say. “You are successfully avoiding paying tax”
“What you are doing is perfectly legal” “It is not however evasion”
Their face reflects their quandary and confusion.
Wanchors
Totally true Longrider. The nasty politics of envy. We would all avoid tax if we could. Typical BBC cobblers !
What is absolutely hilarious about this is that Hamilton has been domiciled in Switzerland for years.
So if *anyone* is being scammed out of VAT, it’s the Swiss, not the British ! Not that significant details like that seem beyond the wit of a media desperate to smear and burn any headline worthy witch they can find.
Curiously the UK print media seem be studiously avoiding discussing either the Channel Isles residency of the Barclay Brothers (who own the Telegraph), the investment portfolio of Lord Rothermere (Dail Mail), or indeed the convenient continual tax-off setting losses at The Guardian, which are so significant that they must surely be part of a wider financial plan.
And for all the pompous outrage currently being displayed by Margaret Hodge about tax avoidance, I don’t recall her at any point turning her guns on Tony Blair, who presides over a latticework of companies designed specifically to obscure his business dealings and incomes. Strange that…
“HMRC will prosecute”
If only they would apply the same strictures to us Xchannel Shoppers instead of circumventing the law. If the officer suspects I’m smuggling- a CRIMINAL offence- he should be duty bound to arrest me (and I would have the right to a lawyer, PACE etc).
I think one of the things that annoys people most is that the taxman will seemingly pull out all the stops to squeeze every penny they can out of ordinary people earning only a few hundred quid but those earning millions have access to ways of avoiding tax that are just not available to the plebs. That is unfair and so most are quite happy to see the government go after the richest first. That is the right way around and come on, admit it, pretending to lease a jet from yourself is dodgy as fuck and shouldn’t be something that can be used to avoid paying tax. Nobody likes being taxed but I’m afraid a civil society is quite impossible without it.
It’s a two way contract. Civil society has the right to expect its money to be spent wisely on those things that are necessary, not vanity projects, frippery and parasitic NGOs.
No one, no matter how wealthy, should pay more than 20%. Progressive tax is not only regressive, it is an abhorrence in a civilised society. It is nothing more than rampant legalised banditry.
Government should be expected to live within its means and cut its cloth accordingly.
When that happens I’ll take a different attitude. So no time soon, then.
If the rich avoid tax using aggressive means, that’s perfectly fair. I have no problem with it. The state is the enemy here, not the wealthy.
I agree that the government shouldn’t be throwing money away on bollox and that it is an insult to anyone that pays tax, but and it’s a big but, I am anti nuclear weapons and for my entire life (51 years on Saturday) the government has taken tax to spend on these ridiculous white elephants and frankly to me that is disgusting. We all have things that we think the gov shouldn’t spend money on but I bet we would all disagree as to the worthiness of each thing. So what you may consider to be a frippery others wouldn’t. I’m not sure how to get around that….
Some of them are blindingly obvious. The state has no business being in the charity business for example. It is not the role of the state. The clue is in the word “charity”.
So; defence, judiciary – I can go with health and education, basic welfare as a safety net, infrastructure such as roads, but that’s about it. If they can’t afford it with a basic flat rate of 20% and zero VAT, then they can’t do it. Just as the rest of us have to manage our finances, not raise taxes i.e. steal more.
, no matter how wealthy, should pay more than 20%
When humanity finally comes to it’s collective senses and declares me Supreme Ruler of The World,the Galaxy and The Entire Universe, my first decree will be , of course, to repeal all the anti-smoker measures. However my second royal decree would reform the tax system: Everyone pays 10% Income Tax, no exceptions, no ‘exemptions’ , no ‘thresholds’. Every £ of income, 10p belongs to the State and there would be a Sales Tax of 10% on all goods, no exceptions, be it a new jet or some crap from the Car Boot.
As the very idea of tax – essentially another word for theft – is most definitely not civil that can’t be true.
Civility comes from cooperation not coercion.
All very high minded but eminently impractical. What happens with those that do not co-operate? Ban them from using roads and anything else of the national infrastructure? That would be extremely difficult to police. Sometimes a one size fits all approach really is the only practical solution as much as I hate to admit that.
They manage perfectly well policing VED avoidance…
(That’s another tax that can go).
If I had his sort of cash I’d be doing the very same thing! Don’t blame him in the least.
So would I. On a smaller scale as a self-employed contractor, I use every means at my disposal to legally minimise my tax bill. If I have the option, I will spend money on the business rather than have it taken from me by the scum of the state.
What is hilarious about the attempt to smear Hamilton is that any fule knowes that Lewis Hamilton has in fact been domiciled in Switzerland for many years now.
So if he *is* diddling anyone out of tax by registering his private jet in the Isle of Man, it will be the Swiss authorities, not the British. And since Switzerland is not a member of the EU he won’t be diddling “Europe” either.
Not that modest details like this are forgotton by our pompous London media in thier witch hunt for daily headlines.
Glad EY and Appleby don’t handle my offshore affairs.