Twenty six MPs from seven political parties have now indicated their support for the Fair Tax Mark:
I am pleased to note that seven political parties are represented in the list.
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When the Fair Tax Mark (as it became) was discussed at the Ethical Consumer Conference on 28th September 2012 one of the aims was to have holders of public office, and well known celebrities, such as footballers and comedians, signed up. It was suggested that it should be an aim to have parliamentary candidates signed up, before the coming general election.
This prompts me to suggest that a start could be made be inviting MPs on this list to submit to Fair Tax Accreditation, which hopefully will encourage many others to also seek accreditation and have the Fair Tax Mark of respectability.
This could lead to the electors, at the general election, by means of the internet petition organizations, stating that they will only vote for candidates who have signed up, and have the Fair Tax Mark of respectability.
As I understand it the FTM as proposed only applies to UK companies with regard to Corporation Tax. Personal taxation positions, and LLP’s, are not currently covered.
If they were, then a ‘failure’ to apply will be described under your proposal as ‘not respectable’ and your recommendation is that they should not be voted for.
Given that, currently, the FTM is not any sort of official grading, is charged for, and any MP could well be complying exactly with the law and does not wish to pay for an FTM – how is this Fair’??
All these issues have been extensively discussed already here and elsewhere and I will not reiterate myself
Richard
I wasn’t asking you for a response, I wanted Mr Lucas to answer my questions.
I can decide to answer if I wish
I’d suggest Mr Lucas does not bother
Richard
I’m not convinced that David Lucas’s suggestion stacks up. It seems to me that, as it stands, the FTM can ONLY apply to entities which must produce accounts each year & put those accounts into the Public Domain. I don’t see how any individual could apply for FTM (sorry if I’m missing something).
Regarding “the well known celebrities, such as footballers and comedians”, they could seek the FTM for their personal service companies, if they have them. The point being made, of course, that often the most tax compliant will be those that DON’T have personal service companies in the first place.
Pleased that My MP (Bob Russell) waas a signatory
Richard – did you see this from the NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/08/opinion/londons-laundry-business.html?smid=tw-share&_r=2
I hadn’t, but I have now tweeted it. Thanks
I can’t argue with a single word Mr Judah wrote. The whole country should be ashamed but “hey we don’t do shame” anymore. The worst thing is that the people who are most keen to ensure this revolting charade continues, Boris, Dave, Gideon, Nigel F, will also rush to cloak themselves in the union flag.
“Never, never, never”? – we are slaves. To money.
Oh Dear. I had intended taking your advice, Richard, and not bothering to reply to Max’s comment. Now we have an identical criticism from William 1. I think I must be too simple minded for some of your contributers. To me it is so simple and straight forward, so I will spell it out.
The Fair Tax Mark has been developed and at present can only be applied for by incorporated companies, because their accounts are published. I merely make a suggestion that means the scope of the Fair Tax Mark will have to be extended if the organizers feel it is appropriate.
There are various things that an individual can do to verify that his statement is true which could apply to someone applying for individual accreditation. At the very minimum, we sign every year to say that our returns to HMRC are truthful. Up and down the country, every day, witnesses are swearing on oath in court, to tell the truth.
An individual wishing to sign up could swear his statements as true in front of an advocate. Is it any more complicated than that? If he has offshore bank accounts he won’t be applying. We know that some people will still lie on oath and that not all published company accounts are truthful. But we know there will always be criminals.
It seems to me that having MPs signed up will go a long way towards getting tax laws changed i.e. the banning of tax havens.
Some times the obvious has to be spelt out to your over sophisticated contributers. Sorry for the sarcasm.
We are looking at accountant based accreditation
But we’re not there yet