There goes civilisation...

Out of interest, not being sarcastic, how's it not sharing when you claw it back in tax breaks? If a company gives 3k to charidee then it pays less tax of just under 1k in the UK ... but it has still cost it 2k, no?

It can be used as a ruse in creative accounting, with the clean example shown below of how it should be done and the tax benefits that the Govt. joins in on, and is nifty trick for reducing turnover thresholds:

Donations by limited companies
From 1st April 2000 donations are no longer eligible for Gift Aid but must be paid to the Foundation gross. The amount of the donation can, however, be offset against Corporation Tax so long as it is included in the company's tax return.
For example, (assuming your company pays Corporation Tax at the full rate of 30%) the company is now required, to make an effective donation of £10,000 to the Foundation to pay £14,300 and then to reclaim from the Revenue £4,300 by means of relief against Corporation Tax

Complicating things even further, you simply set up your own charitable foundation:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2007/dec/05/banks.northernrock

"Britain's high street banks have raised billions of pounds in funds through complex financial deals that use supposedly charitable trusts which are not donating a penny to good causes, the Guardian has learned."

Still...it's the corporate lawyers you want to be hating. Do well in boom-time, do better in bust-time.

This thread has been the highlight of my day.

and before anyone asks, I work in local government, strike whenever possible and own a donkey jacket.

haha, spot on!

This thread has been the highlight of my day.

and before anyone asks, I work in local government, strike whenever possible and own a donkey jacket.

maximum reps!

Cheers snowy_again. Think i'll go out on my bike now, ponder the depths some people will stoop to - Northern Rock using a Down's charity as part of a securitisation scam? My, I'm glad we bailed them out.

What about the sector, hyped on fees pushing the mortgages?
Or what about the proportion of 2nd/3rd/4th/5th property owners taking the housing stock, pushing up the prices that help make these mortgages unaffordable?

By Jove the girl had it! we can't blame them, it was demand driven.

If they hadn't fked pensions up all the people wouldn't have been looking for second homes, being brainwashed by that fat woman and lanky twat on the telly box meant we all wanted bigger and better at great rates.

The bankers profited the most, there is no doubt, their poor business practice and down right ineptness at their job means they now need new jobs..Saaaweeeto!

But when your high streets are rammed with people buying HD TV's for 3mbit SD content and £40 skin cream that makes you look younger and upgrading their houses over their personalities then... Nay fooking pity!
The only way we lose out as people is our disposable income will drop - if thats what your life is about then maybe taking it away will do your soul some good

The system we have now is a weird mix of capitalism and socialism. We try to approximate the capitalist ideal as best as we can, while protecting the less privileged and less able.

there is nothing, whatsoever remotely socialist about the current system. it might pretend to be socially just, but it doesn't do that either. it pretends to be meritocratic, too, when it really just rewards those with vested interests.

this phrase 'approximate the capitalist ideal the best we can', doesn't make a lot of sense to me. capitalism is rapacious, all consuming, and by its very nature concerned with the production of capital. social well-being comes second (or last), no matter how many panaceas or sticking plasters are hurled at the suppurating, gangrenous wound that is the poor folks.

no matter how many panaceas or sticking plasters are hurled at the suppurating, gangrenous wound that is the poor folks.

I'm sure they love you too PJ

erm.. added to that, "the poor" are actually seen as an economic necessity, instrinsic to the perpetuation of wealth creation. In other words, economic measures are figured in to maintain the disparity between rich and poor. And they're not being figured in by the poor in their attempts to create wealth for themselves, that's fo sho.

I guess I'm saying no sticking plasters are really being hurled and they aren't seen as gangrenous at all.

Deep, deep shit....

But when your high streets are rammed with people buying HD TV's for 3mbit SD content and £40 skin cream that makes you look younger and upgrading their houses over their personalities then... Nay fooking pity!

you should have pity.

the insidious effects of poverty and deprivation have been subverted by the seductive wiles of monopoly capitalism and easy credit. people are actively encouraged to measure their affluence in terms of the size of the TV, this means that they are not as concerned about the failure of the education system, and so on.

in its own small way, the poor bringing down the rich is a form of justice, lehman exploited the mortgage market, viewing it as a cash cow. it's a shame that everyone now has so much to lose as a result of this sorry, vile mess.

Tried to rep you for that pj (the system won' let me)
You put it so much better than I could

I'm sure they love you too PJ

they sure do.

Bit of light relief then?

you should have pity.

the insidious effects of poverty and deprivation have been subverted by the seductive wiles of monopoly capitalism and easy credit. people are actively encouraged to measure their affluence in terms of the size of the TV, this means that they are not as concerned about the failure of the education system, and so on.

in its own small way, the poor bringing down the rich is a form of justice, lehman exploited the mortgage market, viewing it as a cash cow. it's a shame that everyone now has so much to lose as a result of this sorry, vile mess.

so the poor haven't brought the rich down at all.

that's the only problem.

+1

+1

Country air is working wonders between those ears PJ ;)

+1

oh and the answer is not to change the system.

it's fucking social fucking justice, as in real life, redistributive capitalism, not unregulated money making and ass-raping the poor with cheap, oleaginous promises, before taking their houses and telling them to go shop at Lidl, whilst those who 'can' complain about the lack of varieties of alfalfa at waitrose, 'credit crunch' or no 'credit crunch'.

and while we're on the subject, 'credit crunch' - what a crock of shit, what a spurious, shitty way to avoid saying the word 'recession', let alone 'depression'.

Country air is working wonders between those ears PJ ;)

He's probably oppressing the downtrodden poor as I type.

He's probably oppressing the downtrodden poor as I type.

that's the downtrodden rural poor.

Ah, yes, I'd forgotten the rurality criterion. In fact, surely in Brizzle they're not rural, they just part rural and yet slightly urbane. I'm just mulling over whether to visit Torfaen or Oban, for work. Blimey is Oban a long way away, it makes Wales look attractive.

a pile of runny dogshit makes wales look attractive.

and while we're on the subject, 'credit crunch' - what a crock of shit, what a spurious, shitty way to avoid saying the word 'recession', let alone 'depression'.

true, but it can be bandied around because we have become such a credit-happy nation. The "recession" or "depression" imminent or in our midst is significantly linked to the credit culture that has developed here since the late 80s. The credit we obtain through here is bewildering to people from countries just as developed as ours. People in Europe, too, who do rather well financially and are just as tied up in notions of bling and materialism. We've been sold a way of satisfying our greed and aspiration where others haven't.. hmmm....