Benefit fraud costs the UK £800 million a year according to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee.
Now look at my last blog on the cost of tax havens to the UK as a result of tax evasion on personal accounts. Note that the direct cost of this is £319 million over 2.75 years, but this can be extrapolated to a sum in excess of £4 billion.
Note too that Jersey accounts for £94 million of the £319 million direct loss. That’s 29%.
That means tax evasion by individuals using Jersey costs at least £1.16 billion a year.
That’s way more than benefit fraud. Massively more than benefit fraud in fact.
We spend a fortune stopping benefit fraud. Why aren’t we stopping Jersey instead? It deliberately sets out to cost us more a year than benefit fraud. Its politicians and government know that.
I assure you: this is a much bigger issue than Sir Fred Goodwin's pension. And I want to see even more clamour about it.
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Once again you try and report things as fact that are based solely on estimates on estimates on estimates, very amusing
For example
“Irish Expats tax avoidance accounts for more than Ireland’s GDP!!”
There are many Irishmen and women living and working in the UK.
Now their decision not to work and live in Ireland has deprived the Irish Government of taxes on their income.
Infact there are around 870,000 Irish living in the UK, and 6 million more with over 25% Irish ancestory.
Now the average tax paid in the UK is GBP4,000 so E4,400, just taking those Irish that are no longer resident in the UK, , comes to 3.8billion Euros. Now if you estimate the Irish expats in the rest of the world (US, Australia, etc) (the US alone has 37 million residents of Irish desent)
So estimate there are currently 50% of the Irish expats in the UK, makes 7.6 billion Euros of taxes lost to the Irish Government.
If you take those of ancestry the US alone accounts for 163Billion Euros lost.
See how estimates can add up, so in effect expats make U2 seem small fry.
Lets stop migration as a way of avoiding national taxes!!
Creg
Candidly you comment is absurd
I used hard data
I used reliable sources
I made clear assumptions that I defy you to refute
This is good economic analysis – of the sort done the world over
If you say this sort of analysis is not possible then nor is much corporate accounting, all financial forecasting, most national accounting, much of economic analysis
Of course you might say that
But for those of us who live in the real world your comment looks like what it is – a small minded critique of someone clinging to desperate short straws to defend the undefendable
Richard
Creg
U2 live in Ireland
And I used realistic assumptions
You are assuming the moon is made of cheese
Richard
Well I would like to see the hard evidence to back up this data. People committing tax evasion no matter where from is committing an offence in Jersey. So I suggest you give us this information so that we can weed these people out. That is, if you can give us a single name of one.
JTM
I name every single person opting for tax withholding under the EU STD in Jersey.
I name all the banks who are not reporting those people for suspicion of tax evasion under AML rules.
I name Barclays, Lloyds TSB, HBOS, HSBC and RBS as facilitating tax evasion and failing in their duty to declare suspicion of it as required by AML regualtion.
The evidence is abundant.
Now face reality.
Those banks have. I guarantee they won’t sue me.
Richard
Richard, can you not even identify a single company or individual comitting tax evasion in Jersey? Like I said, it is an offence so we would all be interested in some real back up to these sweeping claims.
Turning around and naming a major bank amounts to nothing. You face reality for a change.
42,000 admitted cases
That’s the reality Jason
Now admit it: you deliberately harbour tax evaders
If you don’t the world will just laugh at you
Surely the reason why RM can’t name an individual is beause as a private UK citizen, he does not have access to names of depositors. Actually, even if he were a state authority, he would still have trouble getting this list of names. That’s why the tax evaders bank in Jersey etc – because of the secrecy. Is JTM really saying absolutely no depositor in Jersey is a tax evader?
JTM is right, it is an offence for Jersey to harbour tax evaders. So Richard, you are just saying that Jersey is lying even though you have no material proof to back up this claim? And 42,000 admitted cases? Thta is good isn’t it? Ever thought some of the money in Jersey from other countries is actually no business of yours anyway?
[…] do wonder who they think they are kidding? I estimate that Jersey costs the UK more than £1 billion a year in tax cost — much of it […]