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If anyone thinks this is a Tory/Cameron problem, then they have missed the point on a rather grand scale (although to be fair that does seem to be this thread's raison d'être)
Straw man eh? This is not about general tax avoidance.
Its about Cameron's tax avoidance and his mealy-mouthed attempts to justify it.
sausagefingers-
Its about Cameron's tax avoidance
Not really, unless I'm mistaken he hasn't avoided any tax (yet).
He sold some shares which just happened to be held offshore, but he brought the proceeds back into the UK and declared the capital gain on his tax return. It's just it was below the CGT threshold so no tax needed to be paid. This isn't tax avoidance.
He received a gift of 200k from his mum. This isn't tax avoidance either. No tax is due on that unless she dies within 7 years of making that gift (at which point IHT will be liable).
Far more important are:
- the way he has dealt with it (initially denying it, claiming it was a private matter, etc before being found out and forced to admit it)
- his lack of transparency whilst claiming to be open (publishing summary totals from tax returns is not what people were asking for, they want to see the details)
- whether he failed to declare such things (offshore holdings) on the relevant HoP register of interest back in 2009/2010
- and all of the above contributing to doubt as to whether he or SamCam (but not his parents) have a boatload of other stuff squirreled away elsewhere waiting to be found
[EDIT - gah, hit the button too early]
But the biggest one is that at some point he will inherit a huge chunk of money some of which seems to have been built up using various offshore tax avoidance schemes. He'll try and distance himself from this by claiming that he's not responsible for how his parents managed their affairs but if he tries to minimise the IHT impact he'll be pilloried. Then again, he probably won't be PM by then anyway, and no-one will care anywhere near as much.
- the way he has dealt with it (initially denying it, claiming it was a private matter, etc before being found out and forced to admit it)
Greenbank
We'd be in exactly the same place with regard to tax avoidance if Labour were in power.
Labour took nearly £400k from PwC last year, despite PwC widely being recognised in the finance industry as one of the most aggressive tax avoiding firms in the world that consistently pushes the boundaries of legality. The hypocrisy is hysterical. If you voted Labour you are buying into exactly the same practices you are condemning. Even old Ed Miliband amended his late father's will to dodge inheritance tax.
If anyone thinks this is a Tory/Cameron problem, then they have missed the point on a rather grand scale (although to be fair that does seem to be this thread's raison d'être).