Herewith the blurb:
The group UK Uncut is calling for another day of action tomorrow to highlight what it claims is tax dodging by well known British businesses.
UK Uncut spokesman Murray Williams and Steve Davies of the Institute of Economic Affairs examine the morality of tax.
Setting aside for the moment the question of morality, a small point of correction. If it’s legal it is not “tax evasion.” It would be called “tax avoidance.” So what’s the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion? According to a friend of my father’s (a lawyer) it is roughly the thickness of a prison cell wall.
You are not morally obligated to pay more tax than you owe. A tax is not a voluntary donation it is an forced exaction of money from the individual to the government. Tax avoidance as Ad Orientem says is OK.
To quote one of the most distinguished American jurists of the 20th Century, Learned Hand of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals:
“Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as
possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes. Over and over again the Courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands.”
Gregory v. Helvering 69 F.2d 809, 810 (2d Cir. 1934), aff’d, 293 U.S. 465, 55 S.Ct. 266, 79 L.Ed. 596 (1935)
The moral aspect of the problem has to do with access to the means of avoidance. The more money you have, the more avoidance you can purchase. As always, the problem lies not with the taxpayer but with the government. It insists on using tax policy to reward allies and shape behavior. That creates the windows of opportunity for clever agents to legally avoid taxation. Indeed, it is specifically intended to achieve exactly that end. The problem of ‘inequitable’ tax burden is therefore best solved by tax simplification. Unfortunately, powerful political agents see tax simplification as a loss of control. The criticism of ‘legal tax evasion’ is therefore misplaced. Blame the government and its desire to use tax incentives to encourage certain behaviors at the expense of other behaviors.
carl
I hate to keep on “blaming the government” but that was the point; it is so obvious that the Obama administration was telling us that they would “cut the taxes” (for those making less than $250K) and give us back some money rather than admit that it was our money in the first place!
Re # 5
[blockquote] I hate to keep on “blaming the government†but that was the point; it is so obvious that the Obama administration was telling us that they would “cut the taxes†(for those making less than $250K) and give us back some money rather than admit that it was our money in the first place! [/blockquote]
The problem is, it’s not our money. It’s China’s money. As I noted [url=http://ad-orientem.blogspot.com/2010/12/tax-cuts-my.html]here[/url] there aint no such thing as a “tax cut” when you are borrowing money just to pay the interest on the already existing debt. This is just another loan from the Politburo in Beijing. It is analogous to having to borrow money to keep the lights on in your house, and deciding to give yourself a “raise” by taking out another loan from the bank, or in this case maybe the Mob would be the more accurate analogy.
When you are in debt, you have no money of your own.
[blockquote] When you are in debt, you have no money of your own. [/blockquote]
The government NEVER has money of its own. It only has money it steals or borrows.