Let them go! The truth is they all escape most tax any way. When I worked in the city, the partners used to spend millions of the company's cash on tax avoidance schemes so they paid as little as possible.

People who set up sucessful businesses rarely do so simply to make money, and once they are rich they don't need every penny they "earn". These people stay in Britain because its a great place to live. Peaceful, tolerant, law-abiding. If they hate tax so much let them go live in Barbados or Lichtenstein, or the Congo....

A lot leave in a flurry of soundbites only to return, more quietly after a while bored, or near scared to death with Amerika, or wherever...

Not at all. I consider it a fair pay off for being in a country that gave me the opportunity to get to that position.

I also wouldn't employ an expensive accountant to help me avoid almost all of my tax that many high earners do.

Emin, she's full of crap, her "art" is crap and she can crap off.

If they really care that much about avoiding their taxes they can simply do what Lord Rothermere; proprietor of Britain's most patriotic newspaper (the Daily Mail of course) did. He declared himself French for tax purposes.

In the unlikely event that I find myself earning enough for it to matter, I might consider declaring myself dead for the tax porpoises.

Well, it's better than being French

Just had a thought, are we having to make 'stars' out of the likes of Big Brother contestants simply because all the actual stars now live elsewhere?

What's the tax like in this respect in other countries, anyone know?

It's generally much higher in all EU countries that have a better standard of living, better infrastructure...

Bye then. You do realise how many of them pay accountants to avoid tax rather than paying taxm right? And I don't mind us having a few less entrepreneurs buying Ferraris if it means a few more teachers buying cars built in Sunderland?

Jon

Sure, but then last time I checked a) we are screwing them for their off-shore accounts and b) tax evasion is a crime.

Even if they don't pay all their tax, the wealth created by new companies and new jobs is still worth something to the country. But they should pay a fair amount, all the same.

Anybody know of a place where one can find an itemised list of what the tax income is spent on?

Just thinking that if people got the chance to see where their money was going they might be more inclined to pay a higher tax burden.

I was waiting for someone to post a picture of a plughole...

Funny that, I was thinking the exact opposite...

Closest I've found is from here, using 2007's figures.

I'm unclear. How much on what now?

Those figures are quite scary. I don't take home £400 a week, but I'd expect to be able to run a household on it.

Which is why I said 'avoidance'. My father was (until retirement) an investigator for the Inland Revenue. He spent his entire working life chasing people who thought they had found legal ways to not pay the tax the law said they should. There's a world of difference between evasion of tax and avoidance of tax. Mainly, as you say, that one will land you in jail if you get caught.

According to the radio this morning the government estimate is that tax avoidance and overdue payments on the UK were £100 billion last year. That's 100 billion. If people simply paid the tax they were supposed to for two years, the government finances will be rebalanced despite them being in the most catastrophic state in living memory.

And who is doing all this avoidance? who are pocketing most of this humongous pile of cash which should be going to the exchequer to be spent by the state? Large corporations and the extremely rich. Or, put another way, the people you seem to be suggesting the government should leave alone. Frankly, all the evidence suggests they're doing far too much of that as it is.

As I say, I have heard a lot about tax evasion and/or avoidance in my time; probably i more details than I really cared about. The idea that the rich are the people paying huge taxes, supporting the state and driving the economy is a myth, much the same as the free market is a myth and financial regulation in the city was a myth. The very rich stay very rich by paying people to make sure they pay hardly any taxes. This is the reality of the world. You could argue about it's merits morally or ethically but that's besides the point. The fact is if you take the wages of a company CEO or city trader and then take a group of say office workers such that the total gross wage of the two is the same, the latter group would have paid more taxes than the individual because they collectively don't have as good accountants.

Jon