Does one have a moral duty to Pay tax?

[BrilloPad]

The fact is that you have a moral duty to pay tax if you're going to live in and benefit from this society. Not any more or less, just the right amount of tax. Entering into this type of scheme is immoral. I bet that if you asked 100 people in the street what they thought of these schemes the vast majority would say that they were crooked.

I'd read this report to show what this type of scam and others are costing the UK http://www.tuc.org.uk/touchstone/Mis...ngbillions.pdf.

BTW the quote is from Dennis Healy in the seventies who said that the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is the thickness of a prison wall.

taken from another thread to keep it on point.

any comments?

[chicane]

I bet that if you asked 100 people in the street what they thought of these schemes the vast majority would say that they were crooked.

Probably the same type of people as the permies who complain about contractors earning twice what they do, without having the balls to do anything about it.

[Troll]

typical left wing bollux... we've overspent...our revenues don't match our expectations thus everyone must be doing tax avoidance

• shifting income from the person who should really pay tax to someone else;
• abusing the law on limited companies.

(NB all legal & above board)

I guess they mean us!!

[Spacecadet]

there is a moral obligation to pay taxes

but there is also an obligation by the government to spend those taxes in a fair, decent and efficient manner
i.e. not going to war when most tax payers are clearly against it

[malvolio]

taken from another thread to keep it on point.

any comments?

No, you have a legal duty to pay tax. How much you pay is a different question, of course...

It has been said several times in the House of Commons that you are under no obligation to pay any more tax than is strictly necessary - in other words, the minimum amount you are liable to under law. If the government then creates a tax regime that is so stupidly complex and badly defined that you can't actually establish what that amount is, then clearly some will take bigger risks and pay less then others on the same income.

BTW I wouldn't read too much into the TUC report either. Its author has already disowned it, plus it is looking at the Phillip Greens, not the average wage slave. It's political posturing masquerading as informed criticism

[dude69]

Yes, it is immoral not pay tax, otherwise there will be no money to pay for bigamists' benefit payments for each of their wives.

HTH

[BrilloPad]

I am quite happy to pay tax. I have a moral duty to my children to minimize what I pay.

Tax laws need to be simplified - will remove loopholes. Bring back Maggie!

[NotAllThere]

Yes. One has a moral duty to pay precisely the amount of tax that is laid down by statute, interpreted by HMRC, and finally ironed out by case law.

I've read the political manifesto masquerading as informed research. One point that immediately springs to mind is that the report suggests that government doesn't take into account any avoidance measures, when defining tax law and setting rates. This seems to me monstrously incompetent.¨

Government has a moral duty to extract as much tax as possible. Citizens have a moral duty to minimise the amount of tax they pay.

[Marina]

From the report:

introduce a new law called a ‘general anti-avoidance principle’ that treats all tax avoidance as unacceptable and therefore open to challenge

So this daft kook is suggesting they should make up the rules retrospectively as they go along.

Who'll take the rest of his amateurish blather seriously when he comes up with absurdities like that?

[AlfredJPruffock]

I would say that there may well be a legal obligation - but the same cannot be said for a Moral obligation.

Income Tax was introduced to fund the Napleonic Wars - Uk taxpayers are funding a very questionable, in terms of morality, Wars in the Middle East.