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12 months in jail for a non-violent crime? how is that soft?
Original post by ktwoodwards
Why is the UK so soft on tax avoiders?


Because politicians know better than to bite the hand that feeds them.
One anecdotal article proves the UK is soft on benefit scroungers, obviously. :rolleyes:

Do you people take nothing in? www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?p=46259411
Original post by ktwoodwards


Did you know that 70% of benefits go on pensions, 29% go on disability, health, child care etc, and only 1% is abused. Though that 1% does equal about one billion pounds. Then again, the bankers have managed to avoid paying over 70 billion pounds in taxes. Why is the UK so soft on tax avoiders?


Came here to write something like this well done :awesome:
Original post by Tyrion_Lannister
Came here to write something like this well done :awesome:


Hahaha glad to be of service! :biggrin:
Reply 25
Original post by Picnic1
Well in that case up to 30% of benefits are abused in my eyes.

It's just that the 'abuse' has been placed in to 'law', that sludgy contract (that we don't even sign but have to agree to as a consequence of merely being born here) that we sometimes mistake ourselves (because it serves us to) as thinking as being an objectively moral thing, as being acceptable.

Disability - some are born disabled, some become clearly disabled and some are 'signed off' as disabled when they should really be signed off as 'more or less chose to become unemployed either because they permanently don't try to fit in in a workplace, don't have enough skills to ever not feel persecuted for the merest bit of feedback, don't have enough willpower sought out by them or brought out of them to make anything of themselves or have chosen to put their health in jeapordy by their own choices in life'.

Health - children sometimes have no choice over their health. Their parents might only feed them high fat foods for instance or might smoke in the home near to them.
But adults? Unless they live near a toxic plant, what is the reason to give them benefits for health? They are just part of the 'chose to become unemployed' as above.

Child care benefit given to parents. Is this a joke? You had sex, you gave birth. Nothing to do with the state. Oh you did it to bequeath the nation with some great mind did you? Why didn't you try to become that great mind yourself instead of asking for benefit for someone who you chose to bring in to the world? It's like being a begger in the street who sits down, draws a painting and then holds his hand out looking for money. Not so you can HAVE the painting,. Just because he made the painting 'Look how beautiful it is'. If it sounds slightly pitiful then that is exactly what anyone who claims child benefit essentially does.

However- what I firmly, absolutely, believe is that there should be child care benefit in the form of tokens for CHILDREN that the child chooses, at school and in consultation with adults, what to spend those tokens on. They had no choice in coming in to the world. They had no choice over who their parents are, where they live or what their early experiences of the world will be like.

The tokens would be a set amount for each child but that they could divide up according to their own wishes.

For instance, they could spend a third on clothes, a third on UK educational outings and a third on decorating their bedroom.

Or, instead, they could spend a quarter on UK educational outings, half on foreign travel and a quarter on electronic equipment. (TVs and videogames are educational, leisure and artistic tools).

As they are tokens, it would never be possible for either the child or adults to just 'fritter' it away on alcohol, fast food etc. Even if those things are not necessarily bad in moderation they are not something that it is a school's responsibility to provide.
Certainly the possibility that child benefit, under our current system, could be used by a parent to buy drugs for themselves, thus making them a less in control parent, is just awful to think of, no matter how badly that parent feels, through their limited perspective, life has treated them.


https://www.gov.uk/dla-disability-living-allowance-benefit/what-youll-get so you begrudge people with serious illness and disability a small amount to live on? Even on the highest care component rate that's only just over £4000 a year... And health benefits include free prescriptions for certain age groups, and not everyone chooses to become 'unhealthy' by bad eating as you suggest! Don't get me wrong I think benefit fraud is disgusting and that some people who claim benefits probably are looking for the soft option, but does that mean we should punish everyone, including those who really need deserve it?
"I'm a middle-class student who doesn't know the meaning of suffering. Let's take away money from disabled people who do so my daddy can have a teensy bit more money to give me as pocketmoney".
Reply 27
Original post by ktwoodwards


Did you know that 70% of benefits go on pensions, 29% go on disability, health, child care etc, and only 1% is abused. Though that 1% does equal about one billion pounds. Then again, the bankers have managed to avoid paying over 70 billion pounds in taxes. Why is the UK so soft on tax avoiders?


More money is gained by eligible people not claiming than is lost to fraud.
Reply 28
Original post by tengentoppa
Financial services bring lots of money to the economy, and London is the financial capital of the world, thanks in part to tax breaks. If the UK cracked down on tax-avoiders companies would take their business elsewhere, the City of London would lose its appeal and we would be in a worse financial situation.


Original post by 345rty
If you collect every penny of tax due, but drive large amounts of business abroad do you really act for the better?


Tax avoidance and enforcement of the law is one of the major reasons we need the EU and the UN to have more bite. The current system of allowing companies to play entire countries off against each other to get lower taxes is absurd and unquestionably, deliberately, directly, against the interests of the customers these companies are supposed to serve.

Its little wonder you have companies like News Corp deliberately stirring up xenophobia and hatred - the recent 'the Romanians are coming' wave of articles were laughable. This article, for instance, is absolutely dripping with hate and you can easily see the motivation behind it - a strong EU, a people that you can't blackmail... is bad for business.
Original post by ktwoodwards


Did you know that 70% of benefits go on pensions, 29% go on disability, health, child care etc, and only 1% is abused. Though that 1% does equal about one billion pounds. Then again, the bankers have managed to avoid paying over 70 billion pounds in taxes. Why is the UK so soft on tax avoiders?


Source for banks avoiding £70 billion?
Original post by nohomo
[video="youtube;0f_ec37PXNQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f_ec37PXNQ[/video]


Every time I see this video it takes me want to go on a killing spree. Yes rustled.
Reply 31
Now that we're entering into a major downturn, those of you who believe that people on benefits are scroungers, will be experiencing this for the first time!
Reply 32
Original post by chome4
Now that we're entering into a major downturn, those of you who believe that people on benefits are scroungers, will be experiencing this for the first time!

First time?

What about 2009?