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| A hundred years after the Russian revolution we are in Paradise | A hundred years after the Russian revolution we are in Paradise |
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| Aditya Chakrabortty’s excellent article on international tax avoidance (7 November) skewers the many lies that western electorates have been fed. It also makes clear an abiding truth that austerity is a political project. Seized upon by those who were fundamentally opposed to the creation of social democracy and the welfare state, the banking crisis of 2008 has been ruthlessly exploited to further dismantle the post-second world war structures and consensus around social security, fairness and equality; and now we know why and can answer the question, cui bono? | |
| But we should ensure we aim for the real target. Individual tax avoiders, however objectionable, are slipstreaming in the wake of the real over-mighty subjects, the international corporates. Satisfying though it may be to bring down the Ashcrofts of this world, it is companies like Apple, shopping around for 0.005 tax rates, that need to be brought to book. This will not be easy, but it truly is a life or death struggle for our democracy; either government is for the people or it is not. | |
| We thus need a long overdue reckoning with our government: they have not just permitted this state of affairs to happen, they have actively encouraged it; most of these schemes are legal. In exchange for a few pieces of silver – jobs in the international finance sector, the odd corporate HQ – they have allowed the impoverishment of millions and perhaps worse: the corrosion of trust in government and the idea of a society that works for all. It is a disastrous state of affairs and needs radical action.Simon DigginsRickmansworth, Hertfordshire | We thus need a long overdue reckoning with our government: they have not just permitted this state of affairs to happen, they have actively encouraged it; most of these schemes are legal. In exchange for a few pieces of silver – jobs in the international finance sector, the odd corporate HQ – they have allowed the impoverishment of millions and perhaps worse: the corrosion of trust in government and the idea of a society that works for all. It is a disastrous state of affairs and needs radical action.Simon DigginsRickmansworth, Hertfordshire |
| • The very stuff of tax evasion is to secrete realities behind a plethora of legal tricks designed to mislead and throw off those supposed to see tax justice done. If those with most money, often disproportionately benefiting from the many advantages of living, working and/or owning property here in UK, go to such grotesque lengths to avoid the dues parliament intends them to pay, and get away with it, what does that do to our culture and democracy? Employees generally pay every penny of tax via the PAYE system, where it is deducted at source. What do they make of all this, with what consequences to their feelings about the country and its rulers? It may well have been an indirect factor in the Brexit shock. | • The very stuff of tax evasion is to secrete realities behind a plethora of legal tricks designed to mislead and throw off those supposed to see tax justice done. If those with most money, often disproportionately benefiting from the many advantages of living, working and/or owning property here in UK, go to such grotesque lengths to avoid the dues parliament intends them to pay, and get away with it, what does that do to our culture and democracy? Employees generally pay every penny of tax via the PAYE system, where it is deducted at source. What do they make of all this, with what consequences to their feelings about the country and its rulers? It may well have been an indirect factor in the Brexit shock. |
| As someone who, as a young solicitor in the City in the 1960s, did a lot of tax mitigation for the wealthy, it makes me smile – and weep – to remember the profession’s reaction to the first hyper-artificial tax dodge devised by Messrs Bradman and Rees, called the Rossminster scheme. Many asked little and simply paid up. But arguably the best tax chambers of the day (including the barrister who, as Lord Nolan, later gave us the invaluable principles of public behaviour) decided they wouldn’t touch it. They thought the scheme would be fought and overthrown by the tax authorities. I was happy to fob off clients asking me to use the scheme for them. But the scheme “worked”, and fundamentally that was because the tax sharks were far better resourced than the authorities. So it continues. | As someone who, as a young solicitor in the City in the 1960s, did a lot of tax mitigation for the wealthy, it makes me smile – and weep – to remember the profession’s reaction to the first hyper-artificial tax dodge devised by Messrs Bradman and Rees, called the Rossminster scheme. Many asked little and simply paid up. But arguably the best tax chambers of the day (including the barrister who, as Lord Nolan, later gave us the invaluable principles of public behaviour) decided they wouldn’t touch it. They thought the scheme would be fought and overthrown by the tax authorities. I was happy to fob off clients asking me to use the scheme for them. But the scheme “worked”, and fundamentally that was because the tax sharks were far better resourced than the authorities. So it continues. |
| Until HMRC and other agencies responsible for investigating and prosecuting tax evasions and frauds have enough experienced lawyers and accountants to cope with those deployed by the sharks, the UK will remain a soft touch. As an active member of the Lords until I resigned at the last election, I worked hard, with others and with academics and charities, to do something about this. But I fear there isn’t the will. I reluctantly suspect that our hard-pressed parties know that to really get the bit between the teeth would lead to a collapse of big-money party funding.Andrew Phillips Sudbury, Suffolk | Until HMRC and other agencies responsible for investigating and prosecuting tax evasions and frauds have enough experienced lawyers and accountants to cope with those deployed by the sharks, the UK will remain a soft touch. As an active member of the Lords until I resigned at the last election, I worked hard, with others and with academics and charities, to do something about this. But I fear there isn’t the will. I reluctantly suspect that our hard-pressed parties know that to really get the bit between the teeth would lead to a collapse of big-money party funding.Andrew Phillips Sudbury, Suffolk |
| • The various stories about financial shenanigans involving places like the British Virgin Islands are another reminder of our tax-avoiding friend Richard Branson. As noted recently (Letters, 18 October), a Wirral GP partnership whose address is the Virgin Care HQ in London receives a contract from Wirral clinical commissioning group. I asked the CCG almost two years ago if, when awarding contracts, they took into account the tax arrangements of contractors (for example by using Ethical Consumer’s ratings for likely use of tax avoidance strategies). It told me it “would not take into consideration tax arrangements of contractors. When awarding contracts through the procurement process, the CCG would assess the economic and financial standing of the bidding organisations. To be clear, tax arrangements are not part of this process”. Truly Paradise has come to Birkenhead. But we knew that already. Kevin DonovanBirkenhead | • The various stories about financial shenanigans involving places like the British Virgin Islands are another reminder of our tax-avoiding friend Richard Branson. As noted recently (Letters, 18 October), a Wirral GP partnership whose address is the Virgin Care HQ in London receives a contract from Wirral clinical commissioning group. I asked the CCG almost two years ago if, when awarding contracts, they took into account the tax arrangements of contractors (for example by using Ethical Consumer’s ratings for likely use of tax avoidance strategies). It told me it “would not take into consideration tax arrangements of contractors. When awarding contracts through the procurement process, the CCG would assess the economic and financial standing of the bidding organisations. To be clear, tax arrangements are not part of this process”. Truly Paradise has come to Birkenhead. But we knew that already. Kevin DonovanBirkenhead |
| • Gabriel Zucman’s admirably clear article (8 November) explains how some EU member states, such as Luxembourg and Ireland, are stealing tax revenue from other member states, such as the UK. He says: “Every country has the right to choose the form of taxation it wants.” Surely within the EU this should not be the case. The EU, while continuously extending its areas of activity, has failed in its most basic task of ensuring fair trade among its members. | • Gabriel Zucman’s admirably clear article (8 November) explains how some EU member states, such as Luxembourg and Ireland, are stealing tax revenue from other member states, such as the UK. He says: “Every country has the right to choose the form of taxation it wants.” Surely within the EU this should not be the case. The EU, while continuously extending its areas of activity, has failed in its most basic task of ensuring fair trade among its members. |
| If the commission can’t devise proper rules for corporation tax and get these accepted, what can it do? It is grotesque that the former prime minister of one of the worst tax-stealers is now commission president. I still believe that Brexit can be cancelled. And when Jeremy Corbyn is prime minister, the British government should pursue the issue of tax-stealing in the EU’s institutions so aggressively that the commission will wish that Britain had left after all.John WilsonLondon | |
| • Owen Jones is right (7 November). The machinations of corporations and individuals to avoid tax which have been exposed in the Paradise Papers may be legal, but are always a conscious decision, involving considerable energy and expertise to thwart the societies of what is due to them. | |
| Apple could not have had achieved its staggering net income of over €250bn over the last 10 years without the education, health, transport facilities etc in its markets; yet even the threat of a slight rise in the Irish tax-dumping rates sends it scuttling off to Jersey, to try for a zero-rate. Tax Justice Network has estimated that worldwide the public purse loses $400bn dollars a year through these practices. This is obscene. The Paradise Papers have the wrong title: they should have been named the Parasite Papers. Mark LawrenceStuttgart, Germany | Apple could not have had achieved its staggering net income of over €250bn over the last 10 years without the education, health, transport facilities etc in its markets; yet even the threat of a slight rise in the Irish tax-dumping rates sends it scuttling off to Jersey, to try for a zero-rate. Tax Justice Network has estimated that worldwide the public purse loses $400bn dollars a year through these practices. This is obscene. The Paradise Papers have the wrong title: they should have been named the Parasite Papers. Mark LawrenceStuttgart, Germany |
| • You are right to suggest “banning giving public sector contracts to big consulting firms that offer tax advisory services” (Editorial, 7 November), but why stop there? Why not ban public sector contracts to those clients who act on such advice and seek to emulate the tax avoidance exposed in the Paradise Papers?Jeremy BeechamLabour, House of Lords | |
| • It seems appropriate for the release of the Paradise Papers to coincide with the centenary of the Russian revolution.John PellingCoddenham, Suffolk | • It seems appropriate for the release of the Paradise Papers to coincide with the centenary of the Russian revolution.John PellingCoddenham, Suffolk |
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| • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters | • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters |