The Paradise Papers

[Stan]

Just been reading about this as there's been an investigation that Panorama are part of in to offshore tax havens owned by the super-rich.

Included in these havens are the Queen's private estate, some members of Trump's administration and Lord Ashcroft. There's also been investigations in to major shareholders at Everton and funding they provide the club. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-41879690?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_breaking&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=news_central

[Guest Cannabis]

We'll start caring when the likes of Manchester City, PSG and Real Madrid do.

[The Artful Dodger]

We got it right in 1649. Get rid of the Royals now, not only do they live of us but they then try to avoid paying their way too, unbelievable arrogance and greed from a family who’ve bloodsucked for too long.

[SirBalon]

Arsenal in there too... That’s a laugh! What have our carers been hiding???

[Dr. Gonzo]

The ultra wealthy and these tech companies are evil judging by this shite. Look at the lengths they go to not pay taxes. Even the fucking Queen who lives off taxes.

The Commerce Secretary for the Trump administration is also weirdly cozy with the Russian government lol. Funny how that comes out again.

[Mel81x+]

All that money and not a single person thought to use block-chain to secure it. In a world where so many companies have lost data and many more are losing them on a daily basis due to attacks its not surprising that we'll see more of this come out. 

Back on topic, I am glad that everyone doing this is being brought to light. Truly disgusting practice and its always the wealthy who do this kind of ludicrous shit.

[The Artful Dodger]

3 hours ago, SirBalon said:

Arsenal in there too... That’s a laugh! What have our carers been hiding???

Arsenal-Everton is clearly an illegal enterprise but nobody cares. It won’t end well for either club, these people don’t care about the clubs.

[Honey Honey]

The cast of Mrs Brown's Boys are at it. Oh feck mammy. 

[The Artful Dodger]

They steal a living as much as the Queen. 

[SirBalon]

So “working class” Lewis Hamilton has also been at it by purchasing a jet for £17m using the Isle of Man scheme. 

[The Artful Dodger]

Things should get ugly, take a cue from our European brothers, we are being taken the piss out of and still people will make excuses.

[Harry]

Interesting. I'm all for things like this being brought to light.

Even if the practices are technically legal there should still be reputational impact associated with their use to act as a disimcentive against doing it. So the more light is shone into the practices of these bank operations the better. 

[6666]

When it comes to big organisations or "business people", you have to assume they know what they're doing regarding tax avoidance/evading but when it comes to some random celebrity I always assume they just leave it up to some accounting firm to get them the best tax situation and they actually don't know if what they're doing is crooked or not.

Fuck all will change though. Especially with Conservatives finding it easy to pull off the trick of having the backs of the rich while convincing the masses they have the country's best interests at heart. Makes no fucking sense but "it's people on benefits and immigrants that are the problem" seems to work everywhere. We don't get fucked the way Americans get fucked by their government regarding taxes but we're not in a good spot either.

[Fairy In Boots]

1 hour ago, The Artful Dodger said:

Things should get ugly, take a cue from our European brothers, we are being taken the piss out of and still people will make excuses.

Do you mean our French brothers? If so are you calling for a revolution followed by an empire then a republic with a presidency then? Sounds like a lot of blood to get to the same place in reality. 

[RandoEFC+]

I'd just like to reassure everyone that I don't know anyone involved with dodgy dealings on the Isle of Man.

The island has always looked for niche tax markets. I won't pretend to fully understand how it works but for example a lot of egaming companies (including Paddy Power and Poker Stars) set up shop in the Isle of Man because there are more beneficial tax laws. You've also got private jet and yacht registration being taxed less over here too. This influx of business is obviously of huge benefit to the island and its residents and has been the successful route taken by the powers that be to turn the islands economy into one that can realistically function in today's world now that we can't rely on tourism (who comes here for a holiday these days, it's like going on holiday to Southport or Blackpool) or fishing and agriculture.

As far as I know, it's never been illegal, merely a shrewd exploitation of the market and competitive taxation. For the island it is smart economics and a no brainer.

However, the problem is where people like Lewis Hamilton, the royal family, remember Jimmy Carr years ago? They employ people to make sure their earnings are "tax efficient", as most of us would probably do if we were making that much money and we didn't want extortionate amounts of it going to the government through one tax or another. The famouses are paying these people to make sure they don't get screwed more than they have to, but these people take their jobs to the biggest extremes and start saving money everywhere possible. Lewis Hamilton probably doesn't care about saving a few hundred thousand in tax on his jet but it's the guys job yo save that money if he can. Lewis probably doesn't know about it but because we know it's petty money to him yet big money to us, these are the incidents that end up making news stories.

I personally understand people criticising the rich people for penny pinching when they have so much money it makes no difference to them at all and from a macro perspective they'd lose no quality of life paying the tax into the UK government and that money could make a positive difference to the other 99.9% of the population. However there are people who blindly criticise tax havens like the Isle of Man without understanding that places like us and Monaco and Guernsey can't support massive manufacturing or service sectors because there isn't enough people or space to be remotely competitive, so the way you keep your economy competitive with the rest of the world is to get creative, find loopholes and gaps in markets to bring money in and stimulate the economy.

[Harry]

day to Southport or Blackpool) or fishing and agriculture.

As far as I know, it's never been 

 

[Honey Honey]

11 hours ago, RandoEFC said:

However there are people who blindly criticise tax havens like the Isle of Man without understanding that places like us and Monaco and Guernsey can't support massive manufacturing or service sectors because there isn't enough people or space to be remotely competitive, so the way you keep your economy competitive with the rest of the world is to get creative, find loopholes and gaps in markets to bring money in and stimulate the economy.

Substituting the word theft for competitiveness in other words.

It's the game played by every government whose financial sector doesn't invest in the productive capacity of the economy to a sufficient level. 

It is the theft of wealth off another community rather than creating new wealth. The UK is at it as well.

Aggressive tax avoidance through crown territories has been going on for decades, it didn't seem a matter of urgency, but the mainland UK is now in huge debt with a lagging unproductive economy, a squeezed middle class and a depressed working class. 

So sorry, when Jez takes over you are going to have to go back to milking cows and dangerous driving