(This isn’t satire – it’s David Gauke!)
Most people now know about Tory minister David Gauke’s mind-blowingly hypocritical statement that paying a plumber cash in hand is “morally wrong” because it denies the country vital funds in the form of taxes when he worked as a tax avoidance lawyer himself and his wife is a lawyer who works for a firm which specialises in helping large corporations with their tax bills.
UPDATE – here’s a response from LexisNexis on Rachel Gauke:
Rachel Gauke: A response from LexisNexis
But this isn’t just annoying. As a result of this government policy, small business people – plumbers – are actually going to prison for tax avoidance.
Last Friday, a plumber in Surrey who evaded income tax was sentenced to 12 months in prison after failing to register his earnings from his one-man plumbing company.
And in May another plumber from Hampshire was sentenced to four months in jail also for not paying taxes.
Numerous other plumbers have had their homes raided and been arrested on suspicion of tax avoidance.
These prison sentences are the result of a campaign to catch tax avoiders launched last year by the exchequer specifically targetting small business people who don’t have the funds and resources to defend themselves plumbers and electricians.
The exchequer has boasted it has saved £500m as a result of the campaign.
£500m? That’s not actually that much compared to the £70 billion a year in tax estimated to be evaded by big corporations.
And it’s not even that much compared to the £759 million which the UK government paid to G4S last year for contracts it so spectacularly doesn’t manage to fulfil.
So the real question that I think needs to be asked is this:
When are we going to stop concentrating on small business people when it comes to tax evasion and start putting the large fry in prison too?
Answers on a postcard please to:
George Osborne MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
Or by email: tatton@tory.org
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Please feel free to comment – you don’t need to register and I’m extremely minimal with the moderating – so fire away.
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Hi Tom,
Just to clarify, Rachel Gauke is a tax writer for LexisPSL, a legal information product (a combination of publishing the law, and advising lawyers how to apply it) and not “a firm which specialises in ‘reducing’ large corporations tax bills.. in other words, helps them avoid taxes.”
It’s worth correcting as it does make a difference to the piece. Thanks.
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What is a ‘legal information product’? To me that sounds like a corporate non-entity. Shame non-entities aren’t liable for tax isn’t it?
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If you’re really interested, a legal information product this this: http://www.trialpsl.com/ which covers 25 areas of law (and is liable for tax…).
And here’s a statement from LexisNexis, clearing up the confusion: http://www.tolley.co.uk/lntolleystatement260712/
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Thanks Melissa. I’ve updated the article to include a link to the LexisNexis statement.
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As we ordinary peasants are aware of which large corporations are avoiding tax, perhaps we should all call the revenue fraud hotline on 0800 788 887. I wonder how closely they will investigate our complaints.
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