Left Foot Forward has reported that Ed Miliband has written to Nick Clegg saying:
During the election campaign you made much of the Liberal Democrat commitment to tackle tax avoidance. You said, if in government, you would raise £2.4bn by attacking income tax avoidance, £1.4bn by halting abuse of corporation tax and a further £750m from stamp duty through tackling offshore registration by non-doms. You claimed that your plans to clamp down on tax avoidance meant that you would not need to raise VAT.
However, since the election you have had a very different message for the country. You have claimed that there is no alternative to the VAT rise, produced no credible plan to make progress on tackling tax avoidance, and we now hear from the Financial Times that HM Revenue & Customs is to soften its stance on avoidance in order to make cuts to its legal budget
Will you explain to the country why you no longer feel it necessary to tackle tax avoidance? And will you publish a detailed timetable showing the timescales on which you expect to make progress? Those who hear you say there is ‘”no alternative” to your proposed tax rises on poor and middle income earners and to deep spending cuts beyond those you supported during the election campaign, expect nothing less.
Spot on.
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I sooooo hope Ed Miliband wins the Labour leadership campaign. He’s got his finger on the pulse.
“Left Foot Forward has reported that Ed Miliband has written to Nick Clegg saying:
During the election campaign you made much of the Liberal Democrat commitment to tackle tax avoidance. You said, if in government, you would raise £2.4bn by attacking income tax avoidance,”
One would be interested in the policies of the government of the previous 13 years, *at the time*, that actually allowed the tax avoidence schemes mentioned hither and thither on this blog.
As a certain Mr Rifkind said of the current leadership race:
“They’re having the leadership contest that none of them had the guts to have two years ago; promising to do all the things they didn’t do when they could have actually done them. “
I really think that before Ed is elected to be leader of the labour party he needs to come clean about all his own tax avoidance scams, he is the recipient of a multimillion pound house in primrose hill which came his way through a raft of deeds of trust etc etc avoiding all IHT , If you think he will be any different to Cameron then I think you will be sadly disappointed as the evidence of his past actions he is as bad as Green and Guy hands ….
I think mr rifkind forgets who is in charge now. What is their reason for inaction in this area?
If you are concerned about ‘the deficit’, it is baffling that that you do not seek to maximise the revenue side of the matter.
However, if your real concern is eviscerating the welfare state to the advantage of your own constituency,it makes perfect sense.
The coalition obviously have the guts to punish the poor while pampering the rich.
Things are getting pretty grim in greece.
If you take away my family’s bread, I’ll take you down — the government needs to know that,” Meletis says. “And don’t call us anarchists if that happens! We’re heads of our families and we’re desperate.
“I really think that before Ed is elected to be leader of the labour party he needs to come clean about all his own tax avoidance scams”
So we are agreed these are a bad thing? Most people who comment here think they’re perfectly admirable.
No pleasing some people….
There are some interesting names amongst the big contributors to the Conservative Party top grade that allegedly allows contact with their top people. One I know is party to a family trust whose hard hit brother’s creditors are currently being bailed out by the taxpayer, who are major tax avoiders, and also screwing captive clients out of all their savings. They need all they can get to keep their ocean going yachts running. The lenience on tax will be good news to them.