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Why Do Millionaires Dodge Tax?


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HOLA441

In the well-attended thread "Why do millionaires still work?", perhaps the most popular answer was that they do it because they like the work for its own sake; that it helps them not turn into slobs, etc.

Very well then: why are they so often discontented with the admittedly unnecessary money that accompanies said work, to the point of resorting to endless schemes of tax avoidance or evasion (all the same for the purposes of this OP)?

Off you go.

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HOLA444

The richer they are the more entitled they feel. They think their wealth makes them different from the little people. Only little people pay tax. Many of them are also sociopaths and that is how they got rich in the first place. They feel they have no need to pay tax because they don't want to be associated with society when they are part of the elite.

Not all millionaires dodge tax, some take pride in paying their fair whack.

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HOLA445

What really narks me, is that they take full advantage of society. It's laws, the police, infrastructure etc etc... but they don't feel they should pay towards it.... How would Tesco survive if we (the people) didn't pay for the police, to protect it?

It really, really, REALLY. Pi$$es me off.

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HOLA446

What really narks me, is that they take full advantage of society. It's laws, the police, infrastructure etc etc... but they don't feel they should pay towards it.... How would Tesco survive if we (the people) didn't pay for the police, to protect it?

It really, really, REALLY. Pi$$es me off.

Your cognitive dissonance got me there. Where on Earth does that jump from millionaires to Tescos come from?

Of course but considering how many millionaires there are out there, it seems that there are very few genuine philanthropists among them.

How many millionaires are there? I don't think I know any. At least not since I was paid several million a month, in a currency where my monthly rent was over a million.

How many of those are millionaires simply by virtue of the value of the land they farm and/or the house they live in, and do those count?

What about someone saving for a house and a pension?

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HOLA447

I picked Tesco because everybody (apart from you) gets the idea, if I picked Richard Branson then somebody would be saying he pays his taxes, or he gave £xxx to charity. Tesco are nondescript and fit the bill perfectly.

If your poor, but your house is worth a million, then the same applies... it's only worth that, because the great unwashed pay people to keep it that way.

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HOLA448

They avoid tax for the same reason anyone else avoids tax. Because it's a kind of theft from the government. And if their rules allow you to avoid some of it then you'd be a fool not to avoid it. Would you rather save £1000 of tax through legitimate means and keep it (or maybe donate to charity) or give it to the government who demand it but give you rules to avoid it?

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HOLA449

I picked Tesco because everybody (apart from you) gets the idea, if I picked Richard Branson then somebody would be saying he pays his taxes, or he gave £xxx to charity. Tesco are nondescript and fit the bill perfectly.

What idea? Richard Branson is a person, tesco is a company. There's no comparison. Do you pick a herring because you decided against a shirt?

If your poor,

Parse error. If whose poor what?

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HOLA4410

They avoid tax because they can. I suspect most millionaires are not pure PAYE like most of us, and also have access to more advice on tax avoidance methods that we do. The problem comes, of course, when the schemes turn out to be tax evasion ones as recently happened to the band, Tax That.

Further, PAYE is a largely invisible form of tax collection - the money was never in your hands and so you don't miss its loss (or at least most people don't). For those who are self employed etc that's not true - and the self assessment process makes you keenly aware of how much you are handing over (including PAYE) as you have to keep records/input a load of data and then are shown a calculation.

Lastly, and I suggest this is the real failure - there's no attempt to say this is all of the valuable stuff the Government will spend your money on. You have to guess that for yourself (while experiencing a constant barrage of news stories about how tax is wasted, lack of government transparency etc - sometimes peddled by the very politicians who stand to gain from your contribution). They could learn a lot from charities in this respect - each £1K you pay in tax could go towards protecting the country from terrorists or pay for 2 weeks of teacher time. Instead the suspicion is always that your cash will go on some MP's duck house, or the House of Commons champagne bill.

Against that kind of background, it's not surprising that a few decide they should minimise their contribution as far as possible.

The HMRC have come a long way in reducing the friction of submitting a self assessment, but they have yet to make the process of taking the tax as easy and painless as PAYE - never mind give you a warm fuzzy feeling. If they could crack that - tax dodging would probably plummet.

Edited by StainlessSteelCat
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HOLA4413

I think that some who become millionaires get there as a result of being driven to do things, often taking 'punts on their abilities' or 'risks'.

They then continue to accumulate money to either let them do more or to cover a rainy day - when their bad idea arrives

Paying tax reduces the accumulation affecting their ability

Others want the luxury yacht lifestyle for themselves and to keep up with the Jones', and that costs money too.

Some become philanthropic, but only when they have accumulated a lot more than a million. I think millionaire is now the wrong category - millionaires are now just Rodney's

Edited by LiveinHope
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HOLA4415

In the well-attended thread "Why do millionaires still work?", perhaps the most popular answer was that they do it because they like the work for its own sake; that it helps them not turn into slobs, etc.

Very well then: why are they so often discontented with the admittedly unnecessary money that accompanies said work, to the point of resorting to endless schemes of tax avoidance or evasion (all the same for the purposes of this OP)?

Off you go.

I'm now a millionaire in some currencies (unfortunately not £'s) as I fast accrue wealth to achieve financial independence. My current crazy situation is that my annual spending (I live well below my means) is less than the annual tax I pay.

I freely admit to avoiding as much tax as I possible can. What I don't do is evade tax. Why? Whether we like it or not and whether we choose to play or not life is a competition. One simple example is the competitive situation for housing we see today. S/he who pays most gets to buy, the other rents/lives under a bridge or buys a cheaper one. Therefore why am I going to put myself at a disadvantage and pay more than I legally have to while the bloke next door doesn't so gets the home for his family.

If the rules aren't right (and I believe they aren't right as there are a lot of loop holes that are well known) then change the rules. We have enough well paid intelligent administrators out there to make it happen if they wanted it to happen. Everyone can then choose to stay, go or do something different.

Let me turn it on its head a bit. We all know the deficit is massive. Therefore to help us all out why don't you write a £1,000 cheque out to HMRC?

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HOLA4416
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HOLA4417

Some become philanthropic, but only when they have accumulated a lot more than a million. I think millionaire is now the wrong category - millionaires are now just Rodney's

I'd agree with that. If you take the figure of $1m, frankly a good chunk of the households in the South East have that. £1m will be quite a few less, but still plenty.

I think you need over £10m to really be independently wealthy.

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HOLA4418

I'd agree with that. If you take the figure of $1m, frankly a good chunk of the households in the South East have that. £1m will be quite a few less, but still plenty.

I think you need over £10m to really be independently wealthy.

Well, you do if you want to start thinking about giving to somebody else - because the likelihood of somebody else giving something to you is remote - society, eh ?

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HOLA4421

In the well-attended thread "Why do millionaires still work?", perhaps the most popular answer was that they do it because they like the work for its own sake; that it helps them not turn into slobs, etc.

Very well then: why are they so often discontented with the admittedly unnecessary money that accompanies said work, to the point of resorting to endless schemes of tax avoidance or evasion (all the same for the purposes of this OP)?

Off you go.

I think a better way to phrase the question is "why doesn't everybody avoid tax?". That way we can start looking at someone earning 10k on PAYE vs someone earning 10k as a self employed person and work up from there, instead of going straight for the "millionaires are insufferable pricks" line..........

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HOLA4422
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HOLA4423

I read some article alluding to this the other day. The reason given was that people tend to focus on the absolute amount of tax they pay (rather than the proportionality) and therefore are more annoyed about paying tax the more they earn. Obviously increasing tax rates with income exacerbate this effect.

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HOLA4424

Most millionaires do not pay tax by PAYE, and employ accountants who themselves buy into the mantra that you should pay as little tax as possible. Many millionaires also harbour the usually mistaken belief that they are worth the money they are paid, even if they hardly have to lift a finger because their money (capital) is doing the work for them. The only thing a fair society can do is try to construct a system that closes loopholes, and taxes in a fair and progressive manner to redress the inbuilt disadvantages of the lower paid. A flat tax would of course be the worst possible option as it would undermine any notion of redistribution which at the moment is the only counterbalance to exploitative rent-seeking.

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HOLA4425

Most millionaires do not pay tax by PAYE, and employ accountants who themselves buy into the mantra that you should pay as little tax as possible. Many millionaires also harbour the usually mistaken belief that they are worth the money they are paid, even if they hardly have to lift a finger because their money (capital) is doing the work for them. The only thing a fair society can do is try to construct a system that closes loopholes, and taxes in a fair and progressive manner to redress the inbuilt disadvantages of the lower paid. A flat tax would of course be the worst possible option as it would undermine any notion of redistribution which at the moment is the only counterbalance to exploitative rent-seeking.

A flat tax would, of course, be the best option as it would be fair, simple, and as such would not be so open to avoidance, evasion and abuse.

With a simple, collectable, flat rate tax of say 25%, those earning £1M a year would pay £250,000 in tax, almost certainly a lot more than they do now.

Anyway, whenever socialist career politicians attempt to redistribute wealth the wealth creators pay them to rethink their plans, and they do.

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