Pretty sure a tax free ISA counts as avoiding paying tax.
Actually, it counts as avoiding paying tax on the interest of income which has already been earned and taxed, rather than avoiding paying tax at all.
Pretty sure a tax free ISA counts as avoiding paying tax.
Actually, it counts as avoiding paying tax on the interest of income which has already been earned and taxed, rather than avoiding paying tax at all.
I really hate this comparison.
A government scheme, open to everyone, is not the same as a dodgy system designed to cheat HMRC through technicalities and loopholes.
So it's avoiding paying tax.
yes if you want to to be an unbelievably pedantic.
It still doesn't compare to the tax avoidance described in the OP for a whole host of reasons.
But those systems are available to everyone!
if by unbelievably pedantic you mean the reason it was created to encourage saving by letting people avoid tax then sure.
And yes it does.
The two are so different it's unreal that you could suggest anyone who uses an ISA is on par with those using the K2 avoidance scheme.
Then where do you draw the line?
He has possibly apologised because his PR team have probably advised him to given the current climate. He hasn't broken the law and this is a mountain out of a molehill. If DC thinks this so morally wrong then close the loopholes.
What I'm saying is that when clever accountants find ways of getting around the system, it's the governments responsibility to close the loopholes.
Exactly, it is the governments responsibility to draw the line, aka the law.
Everyone else should be entitled to venture as close to that line as they wish.
Explain to me how a government supported scheme with a strict limit on the amount of money per year that can be used to earn tax exempt interest, from earnings which have already had tax deducted from them (in my case, can't speak for the rest of society) is in any way similar to a scheme that sees someone's earnings funnelled off shore before they pay tax only to be 'loaned' back to them and then for the loan to be defaulted upon.
The two are so different it's unreal that you could suggest anyone who uses an ISA is on par with those using the K2 avoidance scheme.
So, imagine they accidently changed the law, without realising, that you could kill your next door neighbours cat if the wind blew @ 25mph to the ENE, would you do it?
So, imagine they accidently changed the law, without realising, that you could kill your next door neighbours cat if the wind blew @ 25mph to the ENE, would you do it?
No, of course you wouldn't, because even though it would be legal you'd know it is wrong.
This "well it's legal" argument is a total crock of ****.
Both are 100% legal ways of reducing your tax expenditure.
About sums it up really.
It's not as black and white as this, there are many shades of grey. If there was 100% nothing wrong with it the government wouldn't be trying to close the loophole.
He has possibly apologised because his PR team have probably advised him to given the current climate. He hasn't broken the law and this is a mountain out of a molehill. If DC thinks this so morally wrong then close the loopholes.