Did George Osborne disagree with HMRC over avoidance?
Posted by Christie Malry on June 29, 2010 at 9:33 am
Ritchie spots a rift between HMRC and George Osborne.
I have now robustly defended my estimate [of the tax gap]. but in doing so had a curious ally in George Osborne who in the budget speech flatly contradicted the HMRC tax gap estimates when he said :
Some of the richest people in this country have been able to pay less tax than the people who clean for them.
That is not fair – and it stems from the avoidance activity that has exploited the wider gap between the rate of capital gains tax and the top rates of income tax.
These practices are costing other taxpayers over £1 billion every year.
This estimate of tax avoidance by the Chancellor from the Despatch Box needs comparison with the HMRC estimate of December 2009 and that if the TUC, prepared for them by Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK.
The HMRC estimate of December 2009 (table below) says that total tax avoidance for income tax, national insurance and capital gains tax amounts to £1.1 billion a year.
Well, I dunno Ritchie, but if I had to guess I'd say that George was using income to capital gains avoidance as an example of the overall tax avoidance industry ("these practices") which HMRC estimates costs £1.1 billion a year. Or "over £1 billion every year" in George-speak.
In other words there's no rift at all.
In other words, Ritchie is left without a leg to stand on. If he wants a good rift, he might like to take a cold hard stare at the gaping holes in his argument... again.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Andrew Brooks, Christie Malry. Christie Malry said: New blog post: Did George Osborne disagree with HMRC over avoidance? http://bit.ly/bIeHOr [...]