If individuals chose to relocate to Switzerland etc to reduce their tax liability this for me is legitimate tax planning.
They can no longer benefit from living in the UK and should contribute to the new economy they live in.
I would add that often people try to avoid paying because the money is wasted not just becasue they do not want to pay.

I don’t know enough about Community Charge to comment on that side of things - it’s a sad fact of life though that where there’s a charge someone, somewhere will be trying to find a way of getting out of paying it.

With regards to VAT, it may be difficult to avoid paying it on consumables - but there are enough opportunities to claim back Input Tax if you can afford to pay a tax advisor to explain exactly why your purchases were for business use. In your original post you also mentioned Stamp Duties - which people will go to great lengths to avoid paying (in the most simple form, think how many houses are purchased for £119,950).

In any case, I didn’t say that our hypothetical individual managed to avoid all these taxes - what I was arguing was that if he/she/it was prepared to relocate to Switzerland (or Monaco, Lichtenstein, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Panama etc etc) for Direct Tax purposes, you can be fairly sure that they’ll be trying to limit their liability to Indirect Taxes as well.

How can an individual avoid community charge, VAT on consumables, parking charges?

I agree with Gareth on the indirect taxargument.

I also do not think tax is a ‘pick n mix option’.

But I’m glad to note we have some agreement!

Richard

Apart from the fact that if they’re reducing their liability to direct tax in this country, there’s a fair chance that they’ll be trying to reduce their liability to indirect ones as well!

We are not in total disagreement my advise to any client would be that to take advantage of Swiss low taxes you have to committ to that country and not try to take advantage of risky tax`planning i.e. for a buisness have a genuine economic presence.

I disagree about relocation. The Swiss themselves want people to relocate their to boost their secondary tax tax.

I would also add that anyone living in this country and reducing his direct tax bill will still be making a significant contribution to the economy paying VAT, excise duties, community charges, stamp duty.

Anyone may go to Switzerland, and live there and pay their taxes there. That’s fine.

What is not fine is to live here, have all the benefits of living here and expect not to pay tax here. But this is exactly the situation Switzerland is seeking to create. Of course it does not want people to move to Switzerland, if they did they’d also want them to pay real levels of taxation. It’s clear that what they’re seeking to offer are ‘holding company’ style operations that do not trade (indeed, may not be allowed to trade) in Switzerland but which do generate professional fees and some low levels of tax and fees there that have no marginal cost to them and which are therefore solely a contribution to the Swiss economy, whilst providing cover to a person who wants to live elsewhere and pay nothing towards the country which provides them with the laws that protect their property, the infrastructure which supports their lifestyle, the health service they enjoy (and don’t say you have private insurance - it doesn’t cover you at 3 in the morning after a car crash but you will expect people to be available to look after you, at no cost), the education of your children or at least those who work for you, your defence, and on and on.

But those who avail themselves of the Swiss offer will try not to pay for this. That, to put it nicely is freeloading off those who do. To put it more appropriately, it’s anti-social behaviour. To claim it’s a democractic choice is actually to deny the nature of democracy which creates the freedom to generate and own wealth. Or to put it straightforwardly, it’s totally irresponisble and those who do it, and facilitate it should be drummed out of society for opposing the common good.

So go by all means, bu don’t claim to have gone for tax purposes whilst sticking here for every other purpose. That’s what I object to.

Richard