Tim Worstall

It is all obvious or trivial except…

 

 

Vince, get with the program will you?

November 19th, 2012 · 9 Comments

Mr Cable said it was “completely unacceptable” that companies were gaming the system with a long list of “appalling stories of abuse” emerging every day.

Might be worth actually looking at these stories of “abuse”.

You know, checking whether they actually are “abuse”. Or just people obeying the law?

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Tags: Tax

9 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Dave // Nov 19, 2012 at 11:03 am

    With all this talk of suing for defamation, aren’t quite a few of the ‘tax abuse’ lot setting themselves up for a fall? Surely it’s defamatory to claim a law-abiding business is engaging in illegal practices?

  • 2 Steve // Nov 19, 2012 at 11:08 am

    Cable sure seems desperate to get his liver-spotted claws on more of other people’s money.

  • 3 Rob // Nov 19, 2012 at 12:09 pm

    This is the man who couldn’t tell the difference between tax evasion and tax avoidance?

  • 4 Gareth // Nov 19, 2012 at 12:59 pm

    If anyone would know about gaming a system and pushing that into illegal activity, it would be an expenses claiming politician.

  • 5 Eddy // Nov 19, 2012 at 1:28 pm

    An MP talks about ‘gaming the system’! The total lack of self awareness is breath taking.
    I take my justified allowances, you game the system and he is a tax cheat.

  • 6 sam // Nov 19, 2012 at 1:43 pm

    With all this talk of suing for defamation, aren’t quite a few of the ‘tax abuse’ lot setting themselves up for a fall?

    If I were a large corporation coming under fire for obeying both the letter and the spirit of EU law, like Amazon, I would definitely pay an intern with a law degree (or just a relatively bright workie with a textbook open at ‘defamation’) to go through the whole of the TJN’s output, amongst others.

  • 7 SadButMadLad // Nov 19, 2012 at 1:58 pm

    An open letter to Vince Cable at AutonomousMind.

    http://autonomousmind.wordpress.com/2012/11/18/open-letter-to-vince-cable-on-tax-avoidance/

  • 8 John Galt // Nov 19, 2012 at 2:30 pm

    With all this talk of suing for defamation, aren’t quite a few of the ‘tax abuse’ lot setting themselves up for a fall?

    MP’s have an automatic get-out in that anything reported in parliament cannot be subject to libel in the courts as to do so would be a threat to parliament.

    Maggies outing of Anthony Blunt and John Hemming’s highlighting of injunctions are examples where this was used appropriately.

    However, parliamentary privilege as more usually used to evade transparency, evade justice, silence critics, etc.

    On the whole a mixed bag…

  • 9 diogenes // Nov 20, 2012 at 2:11 am

    is there the beginning of one ogf those general rules…whatever someone called Bercow says, the opposite must be true?

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