Jimmy Carr talking about his tax avoidance

Not a fan of Jimmy Carr but was quite surprised at the all the outrage.The guy sheltered his earnings in a a legitimate fashion and ended up paying 1% tax.

Its just good tax planning,the outrage I suspect is really nothing more than envy that he had the smarts to hire a good tax accountant.

Would I do the same if I could?you better believe it.
 
same here, he done noting wrong, who would want to give the 'taxman' a penny more than they have to.
 
I thought I was missing something on this story with all the media coverage and talk of him apologising etc...

He didnt break the law. He took advantage of a legal scheme to pay less tax.

Whats the problem?
 
The problem was that he saw nothing morally wrong with not contributing a "fair share" to the society he lives in, particularly as he could well afford it.

What makes it worse for him, compared to any other tax-avoiding multi-millionaire, is his hypocrisy in earning a lot of his fortune through comically lambasting politicians for their display of similar financial ethics.
 
circle said:
What makes it worse for him, compared to any other tax-avoiding multi-millionaire, is his hypocrisy in earning a lot of his fortune through comically lambasting politicians for their display of similar financial ethics.
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Just an observation; a few have already said that it was a legal scheme and he was savy to have done so. If it was one of our own politicians would we have been as easy on them.
 
nobody here broke the law! why would anyone in their right mind pay anymore than the have to, regardless of what you earn!
 
blueband said:
nobody here broke the law! why would anyone in their right mind pay anymore than the have to, regardless of what you earn!
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Because if everyone did it we would have no services, no roads, no health system etc..

Obviously no-one stating this has any concept of society and this is what contributed to the sorry state we find ourselves in.

Carr himself also made jokes about the "1%" and greedy bankers when he himself had also lost his moral compass.
 
dereko1969 said:
Because if everyone did it we would have no services, no roads, no health system etc..

Obviously no-one stating this has any concept of society and this is what contributed to the sorry state we find ourselves in.

Carr himself also made jokes about the "1%" and greedy bankers when he himself had also lost his moral compass.
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You obviously haven't seen him live if you think his moral compass is in any way linked to his tax dealings. Comedians are there to make you laugh, and practice what you preach doesn't come into it.
 
dereko1969 said:
Because if everyone did it we would have no services, no roads, no health system etc..
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Unless, having the tax rate at 1% does in fact bring in more tax than tax at a higher rate. If not, then why doesn't David Cameron just remove/increase this rate rather than making the statements he did? Simples.
 
I don't know anything about Carr's political beliefs, but I applaud him for having reduced his taxes as much as possible. This left him with more money to save or invest or spend frivolously, all of which is good good for the economy.

It is beyond me why people would complain about someone legally avoiding taxation. And I agree with Firefly, higher taxation does not mean higher revenue, but rather in most cases it means lower revenue.


dereko1969 said:
Because if everyone did it we would have no services, no roads, no health system etc..
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So your logic is that if government doesn't provide these they simply wouldn't exist? How does everything the government does not provide end up in ample supply for every type of budget?
 
truthseeker said:
He didnt break the law. He took advantage of a legal scheme to pay less tax.

Whats the problem?
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The problem is the law (or lack of law) that allows rich people to pay little or no tax by exploiting legal loopholes.

The other problem is the hypocrisy of Cameron whose family wealth is built on the back of the offshore fund business having the neck to have a go at Carr.
 
Complainer said:
The problem is the law (or lack of law) that allows rich people to pay little or no tax by exploiting legal loopholes.
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But thats not Carrs problem - thats the governments problem for not having a more sensible law in place.

If someone acts in accordance with the law, then they shouldnt be vilified for it.
 
truthseeker said:
But thats not Carrs problem - thats the governments problem for not having a more sensible law in place.

If someone acts in accordance with the law, then they shouldnt be vilified for it.
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There's the spirit of the law and then there's the interpretation of that law. You can be pretty sure that the person(s) drafting the tax law didn't envisage it being abused / sidestepped in that way.

How do you define "sensible law"? - go look at any piece of legislation you like, tax law or otherwise, and see how "sensible" it is to read.
 
The Irish anti-avoidance legislation is very simple and basically amounts to if it walks like a duck etc..

If any of you have ever seen any UK Revenue legislation it would make you cry, they try to legislate for every eventuality and always miss an element.
 
mandelbrot said:
There's the spirit of the law and then there's the interpretation of that law. You can be pretty sure that the person(s) drafting the tax law didn't envisage it being abused / sidestepped in that way.

How do you define "sensible law"? - go look at any piece of legislation you like, tax law or otherwise, and see how "sensible" it is to read.
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I dont disagree with any of this - but again, how is this Carrs problem? He hired a tax accountant who said 'listen, here is a scheme where you pay a very small amount of tax' - the tax accountant is an expert who Carr is paying for advice. If anything its the tax accountant who is abusing the law. Not Jimmy Carr.

And as for the spirit of the law and the interpretation of the law - laws should be clear and not open to ambiguous interpretation.
 
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