Jimmy Carr

snoopsmydogg

Since folk are still getting so easily offended in here I thought it may be worthwhile bringing it up.

The guy is a top comedian, very quick and took the p*ss out of the banks A LOT. recently been pulled up for tax puposes which although not illegal still felt the need to apologise.

Will it stop you watching him?

for me no. I like his work, he didn't break the law and if I was in a situation where I could save money I would do it to.

daviesee

snoopsmydogg wrote:

he didn't break the law and if I was in a situation where I could save money I would do it to.

That is the trouble.
The majority of people who are critisising him are either not in that position, or are too high profile to get away with it. There are exceptions though obviously.
If you want to know who else is doing it, just look at those staying quiet.

Secteur

I'd do what he did re: tax.

MattC59

Secteur wrote:

I'd do what he did re: tax.

Avoided paying it, by having his income paid into a fund (in the channel islands I think). The fund then 'pays' him a small sallary and 'lends' him the rest. He's not liable to pay tax on the loan and somewhere in the small print it's written, (and reinforced by legal jargon) that he only has to pay it back when the fund ask for it. Which they won't (again in the small print and reinforced by legal jargon).

Basically, legally he did nothing wrong. Morally, it's highly questionable !

TheStone

I was offered a similar scheme and turned it down.

People keep saying it's legal, but it's clearly fraud. This government and the one before have known about it for years, but did nothing to close the loop hole.

Will they do anything now?

bompington

I'm a bit surprised that it's possible to call something a loan when in actual fact the way it's done means that it clearly, and with documentary evidence, isn't a loan. Makes the tax laws look pretty toothless if it really is legal.

Anyway, I'm just off to see if my boss can lend me a few grand instead of my pay this month. After all, if it's legal, why can't anybody do it?

TheEnglishman

The crazy thing is big companies do this and have done for years. They then come to an 'agreement' with HMRC so pay a bit of tax.

So in this case one bloke gets pulled up for (I'll flatter him) a tax bill of a couple of million. But big multinationals get away with hundreds of millions.

Oh - and Carr's on a tour right now, isn't he? What brilliant TAX FREE advertising the PM just did. Bravo! :roll:

schlepcycling

This sort of thing used to be go on when I was an IT contractor.

You would invoice the client and have the money paid to your umbrella company. The umbrella company would then pay you your 'salary' at minimum wage (approx £5 per hour) and then the rest would be paid to you as company dividends which when I was contracting only attracted tax at 10%.

DavidBelcher

snoopsmydogg wrote:

Since folk are still getting so easily offended in here I thought it may be worthwhile bringing it up.

The guy is a top comedian, very quick and took the p*ss out of the banks A LOT. recently been pulled up for tax puposes which although not illegal still felt the need to apologise.

Will it stop you watching him?

for me no. I like his work, he didn't break the law and if I was in a situation where I could save money I would do it to.

Whilst he's not in my top 10 stand-ups, still quite amusing and the whole tax palaver wouldn't put me off watching, say, HIGNFY if Carr was on it. Maybe he just needs to pick his gag topics a little more carefully lest such matters backfire on him* as was the case recently.

David

*In a similar vein, probably best if Jack Whitehall avoids doing any material about unfunny, talentless, ex-public schoolboys entirely.

Peddle Up!

Plus, of course, once the Carr strory was "broken" by whoever, the media stopped asking questions about Jeremy Hunt allowing him to scuttle away under the nearest slimy stone. :evil:

Frank the tank

Loopholes have to be closed so we all pay our fair share. Corporations/big business are the ones who avoid pay billions.

As for Jimmy Carr, he'd be starving if it was down to my comedy preferences. I don't find him funny but obviously a lot of others do.

bartman100

schlepcycling wrote:

This sort of thing used to be go on when I was an IT contractor.

You would invoice the client and have the money paid to your umbrella company. The umbrella company would then pay you your 'salary' at minimum wage (approx £5 per hour) and then the rest would be paid to you as company dividends which when I was contracting only attracted tax at 10%.

This is still how it works for IT contractors - but I wouldn't say this is a 'similar thing' other than the basic principle is the same - Tax Avoidance. It's hardly on the scale of Jimmy Carr though.

dylanfernley

the british establishment has been refining robbery for hundreds of years, they give themselves knighthoods and all other titles to celebrate their hegemony, all perfectly legal as you know how law is 'made' in this great democracy-- they are numerically very small but thats another avenue-- bolsheviks had the right idea-- lead tablets at high velocity

Stevo_666

Frank the tank wrote:

Loopholes have to be closed so we all pay our fair share. Corporations/big business are the ones who avoid pay billions.

So what is our 'fair share'? Sounds a bit like what you think we should pay rather than what the law allows

Dog Breath

Stevo 666 wrote:

Frank the tank wrote:

Loopholes have to be closed so we all pay our fair share. Corporations/big business are the ones who avoid pay billions.

So what is our 'fair share'? Sounds a bit like what you think we should pay rather than what the law allows

Surely, everyone's fair share should be the amounts stipulated by HMRC; ie 20% up to £34,370, and 40% up to £150,000 just like everyone on PAYE has no option to pay. Just because someone is not on PAYE should not mean that they have the opportunity to avoid paying tax.

Irrespective of the arguements about what tax is spent on, it does pay for necessary services to keep the country running. Why should these selfish twunts not pay, but expect poorer people to pay for the services that they benefit from. Absolute scum, the lot of them !!

Stevo_666

Dog Breath wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

Frank the tank wrote:

Loopholes have to be closed so we all pay our fair share. Corporations/big business are the ones who avoid pay billions.

So what is our 'fair share'? Sounds a bit like what you think we should pay rather than what the law allows

Surely, everyone's fair share should be the amounts stipulated by HMRC; ie 20% up to £34,370, and 40% up to £150,000 just like everyone on PAYE has no option to pay. Just because someone is not on PAYE should not mean that they have the opportunity to avoid paying tax.

It's a lot more complex than that - JC's example is one of the more extreme ones, but just to give you a common example: what if you choose to contribute to a pension scheme? Those payments are tax deductible. Some people might call that tax avoidance