There is a lot of comment on the television programme The Town That Took on the Taxman, and rightly so. Many will now be asking what they might do. On thing that is possible is to sign the Fair Tax Pledge
The Fair Tax Pledge is a new idea from the Fair Tax Mark, of which I'm a director.
The Fair Tax Mark is aimed at those businesses that are run as limited companies but we've always known that there are small, unincorporated businesses and many individuals who have wanted to say that they too believe in paying the right amount of tax, in the right place, at the rate rate and at the right time but had no way of doing so. The Fair Tax Pledge puts that right.
The Fair Tax Pledge is open to anyone. It asks that you commit to:
- Declaring all your income and that of any companies or other organisations you're associated with openly, honestly and on a timely basis;
- Not use tax havens to reduce any tax that you owe;
- Not use marketed or abusive tax avoidance arrangements;
- Not enter into any tax arrangement contrary to the spirit of the law;
- Advise your accountant, if you have one, that you do not want them to do anything contrary to the commitments you have made.
And that's it.
We don't check what you say: it is a commitment, after all. And anyway, there is no practical way we could check: just as HMRC expect you to be honest when submitting your tax return we expect you to be honest when making this declaration.
In exchange for signing we'll send you images to display, in your business, at work or wherever you wish including on your web site or Facebook.
And that's the key point. Apart from the potential impact on those with an accountant the Fair Tax Pledge is about saying to the world that you want to do the right thing, knowing that others think the same way.
But you can ask for your name not to be published too, if you want. We know some people will want that.
If you can sign the Fair Tax Pledge please do. It makes a statement that is needed.
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Who decides what the spirit of the law is – would that be you by any chance?
Every tax payer does
Some get it right
“SOME GET IT RIGHT”
So yes, you think you get to decide what the spirit of the law is!
Doesn’t that introduce a massive amount of subjectivity and make this entirely pointless?
Not at all
The spirit of the law is glaringly obvious 99% of the time
Except to those willingly seeking to abuse it
So let’s stop the silly talk
Maybe I’ve missed something here or prior to subscribing to this blog, it might have been mentioned, but whilst I see the point here and it appears to be a good idea, and before I’m accused yet again of being a “right wing Tory nob-head!”, there are mechanisms in place by HMRC that you pay your fair share in tax. Failing to do so, either by false accounting, under declaration etc etc, the penalties are horrendous, so for the “small” business person and for the vast majority of companies, the motivation is…get it right first time or else!
For the public’s angle, especially those in PAYE employment, just wouldn’t comprehend the issue, other than the well publicised tax practices of Amazon, Apple etc. Some people and especially the government, past or present simply do not trust their citizens, on anything. What was it George Carlin said ” Governments do not Want well informed, well educated people because that is against their interests, they want obedient workers who are smart enough to work the machines, do the paperwork, but are dumb enough to passively accept it”.
It’s a known fact that HMRC will not investigate large companies because they assume if something is going on, someone will whistleblow on them, so maybe the answer here is to simplify the tax regime and as I’ve said before, bring in flat tax. It’s worked in some countries, why not here?
Anyway, good idea, I’ll sign up.
And I continue to utterly disagree with you on flat tax
But thanks for signing up
Comes across as fascistic.
Pardon?
Whilst I agree with the spirit, is it not just compliant taxpayers that will sign up? It’s a bit like the tax system itself, which penalises the compliant against the non compliant because the policing by HMRC is so very weak. They continually go for the soft target, and compliant taxpayers are the soft target. I wonder whether campaigns like this just reinforce the situation.
But it least it lets us see there are people trying to be compliant
So there’s no verification and anyone can sign the ‘pledge’ based on their own assessment of the spirit of the tax regs?
And this is considered useful and meaningful for whom?
Read the blog and the notes