According to reports in the Independent, Britain is entering into talks with three tax havens which could help raise £10 billion for the Treasury by 2015.
And George Osborne said that the UK was discussing tax arrangements with Switzerland which could mean that their government would help to tax British citizens' assets in the infamous Swiss bank accounts.
Switzerland may introduce a withholding tax on new deposits without giving up its banking secrecy laws.
Meanwhile an arrangement for banking transparency which was recently agreed with Liechtenstein may be out performing the £1 billion predicted in the Budget.
Now a further three unnamed tax havens are reported to be going into talks with Britain to discuss the same sort of arrangements. The Treasury anticipates that over £10 billion could be pulled back if the three new countries, get on board along with Liechtenstein and Switzerland.
So credit where it is due, this is a small move in the right direction. So well done for that Mr Osborne.
It is nothing like the vast amount of money which is fiddled every year one way and another by selfish greedy thieves, every bit as guilty as the benefit cheats we have heard so much about this week. So let’s be as patronizing about them as we were about the dole scroungers. We aren’t persecuting them, we’re just helping them to lead a more community oriented life... It’s for their own good. And if they don’t pay up then we’ll maybe have to insist on them doing community service along with the terminally lazy ... oh and the criminals we can’t affo
rd to put in jail any more.
Needless to say when asked about it George, like a wee parrot, said: "We are all in this together."
Of course we are George, of course we are....
I’m sure he’ll learn some new slogans soon. This one has already bitten him on the butt.
And George Osborne said that the UK was discussing tax arrangements with Switzerland which could mean that their government would help to tax British citizens' assets in the infamous Swiss bank accounts.
Switzerland may introduce a withholding tax on new deposits without giving up its banking secrecy laws.
Meanwhile an arrangement for banking transparency which was recently agreed with Liechtenstein may be out performing the £1 billion predicted in the Budget.
Now a further three unnamed tax havens are reported to be going into talks with Britain to discuss the same sort of arrangements. The Treasury anticipates that over £10 billion could be pulled back if the three new countries, get on board along with Liechtenstein and Switzerland.
So credit where it is due, this is a small move in the right direction. So well done for that Mr Osborne.
It is nothing like the vast amount of money which is fiddled every year one way and another by selfish greedy thieves, every bit as guilty as the benefit cheats we have heard so much about this week. So let’s be as patronizing about them as we were about the dole scroungers. We aren’t persecuting them, we’re just helping them to lead a more community oriented life... It’s for their own good. And if they don’t pay up then we’ll maybe have to insist on them doing community service along with the terminally lazy ... oh and the criminals we can’t affo
rd to put in jail any more.Needless to say when asked about it George, like a wee parrot, said: "We are all in this together."
Of course we are George, of course we are....
I’m sure he’ll learn some new slogans soon. This one has already bitten him on the butt.
Pics: The Princely Palace above Vaduz, and a glass of water with George Osborne
A similar report on the same story was in the Saturday Telegraph.
ReplyDeleteMovement regarding dealing with those tax havens.
Just as promised, I will expect you lot will apologise for your nastiness regarding the Tory honesty regaridng this pledge?
Oh how exciting. Taxing people until the pips squeak. How dare people make money. Best we all sit on our arses and do nothing.
ReplyDeleteIf I was wealthy I'd do zip. Why bother ? If they just did nothing they would get all their benefits paid and wouldn't need to lift a finger.
The more you work the more you pay. if you work really hard then you wil pay half of yor earnings in tax.
Motto -- work less, create less and pay less.
No wonder the UK is finished.
Tris
ReplyDeleteI am told George Osborne drinks his own urine how Mrs M knows this is beyond me.
one has to balance this claim alongside the reputed
George Osborne plans to cut levy on banks' balance sheets
Treasury considers cutting proposed levy after learning it could raise an unexpectedly high £3.9bn a year
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/nov/14/bank-tax-cut-bonuses
In due course the Torys secret deal with the bankers over the maximum the Torys will
raise from them will be leaked.
Ben dover
your post reflect your film making ability's
and moral stance(you havent any).........
seedy little purveyor of porn you!!!!!!!!
Ben
ReplyDeleteAre you suggesting that only those who pay half their earning in tax work really hard?
Do you think Rupert Murdoch works harder than the guys who, during the night, were humping bundles of his paper all over the country?
Will Gideon tackle the culture of Family Trusts and Offshore Trust to reduce UK tax?
ReplyDeleteFor example, Gideon's one which is reputedly save him over £1,000,000 each year?
Whatever else can be said about Liechtenstein, the Prince has a really cool house, with an AWESOME view of the mountains. For that matter, Prince Johannes Hans Adam Ferdinand Alois Josef Maria Marko d'Aviano Pius von und zu Liechtenstein has a name that is not too shabby either. Perhaps he says "Call me Hans?" On the other hand, maybe life ain't easy for a boy named "Maria."
ReplyDeleteWikipedia tells me that he threatened to move to Austria if a referendum to expand his powers had not been passed in 2003. It passed, but that was surely an empty threat. No way the dude was going to leave that house of his. On the other hand, with a fortune exceeding two billion pounds, he could undoubtedly have found suitable accommodations in Austria.
This message is off topic I know. But I couldn't resist. I haven't posted in a while, and I seldom have anything worthwhile ON-topic to say.
brownlie
ReplyDeleteRupert Murdoch works very very hard 24/7 trying to think of ways to make those ' guys who, during the night, were humping bundles of his paper all over the country'
work harder and longer for less and if they are ever dispensed with they are reduced to penury asap and hopefully die pretty quick to.
Danny that's all right we in these Islands are used to eccentricity a national trait some would say
Urine drinking is very popular with the Etonian upper classes Margaret Thatchers is particular sought after.Although these days she does produce vast unregulated quantity's and her family have a problem mopping it all up and squeezing it into Bottles for sale.
ReplyDeletehere is a sample...........Yummy!
http://junkyarddistribution.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/piss_bottle.jpg
buy one get one free
Niko,
ReplyDeleteI think Ben was talking about people like a friend of mine who was so lazy that he used to ride his bike over cobbles to knock the ash off his cigarette.
Ah Dean...
ReplyDeleteI said credit where it is due... you don't want too much, do you?
After all it's reckoned that well over £100 billion goes uncollected every year and these measures are going to bring in £10 billion over the next 5 years. So no, I'll be apologising when I see the whole thing tightened up and bringing in real money!
Why Gordo didn't think of doing this, I don't know. Any ideas Niko?
Och Ben, don't haver. Nobody needs the kind of money these people have.
ReplyDelete"If I was wealthy I'd do zip. Why bother ? If they just did nothing they would get all their benefits paid and wouldn't need to lift a finger."
Erm... if you were rich, you COULD do nothing and let your money earn for you... You could lie in bed all day and do nothing and still be rich.
No one is talking about putting up taxes on them, just collecting the taxes that they owe, and then, at £2 billion a year, only a tiny percentage of the taxes they owe.
Niko: Thanks for that link.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they find that the cutting of housing benefit after a year of unemployment, (regardless of how many hundreds or indeed thousands of jobs have been applied for) is bringing in more money than anticipated, they will change that in favour of the recently homeless...
I sometimes wonder about Mrs M. She seesm to know so much...
Good point John. I've seen people working two jobs so that they can give their kids a half decent holiday or Christmas.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Mr Murdoch does work hard, but he does it at his pace and has no one to satisfy but himself, no boss to shout at him....
Bugger: In a word NO. Of course he won't. Would you do something that cost you £1 million?
ReplyDeleteWhy Mr Brown didn't do something about this, I don't know....
brownlie said..
ReplyDelete" Are you suggesting that only those who pay half their earning in tax work really hard?
Do you think Rupert Murdoch works harder than the guys who, during the night, were humping bundles of his paper all over the country? "
No what I'm suggesting is that chasing after the very rich is now a pointless exercise as they will never be caught. The system is all in their favour. Accountants will easily bypass any attempt to tax them until the pips squeak. Or else they will take their head office offshore and pay no tax at all.
But there is a solution and it was on Channel 4 last week. Follow what Hong Kong did in the 1960's and just change the tax culture.
Zero tax for anyone earning under £20,000 and a maximum 20% tax for anyone earning over £20,000.
Scrap VAT and business rates on small companies with a low rate for large companies.
Then watch the country boom.
LOL @ Danny...
ReplyDeleteNormally no one is on message on this blog, as you will well know mate.
You're right. I was looking for a pic for this story and came upon that one of the schloss, and I though...wow, I wonder if it’s up for sale. Imagine waking up on a nice warm morning and throwing open the windows and looking out at that.
I didn’t know old Johannes Hans Adam had THAT many names, and how did he come to have a Spanish girly name in the middle of it....? I can only imagine that they ran out of boys’ names and thought that if they stuck Maria in the middle no-one would notice. Or maybe his parents were fans of “The Sound of Music”.
I suspect that the advantage of being a Liechtensteiner and having £2 billion is that you don’t have to break the law to put your money in a tax haven!!!
He’d have never left that castle though... lovely though Austria is, there’s nowhere like Vaduz... Have you seen the place?
Niko... That's a pretty good summing up of life for the poor ...lol.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that you're a splendid example of eccentricity yourself. And you seem to have the most extraordinary and somewhat worrying fascination with drinking urine.
Mr B... Smoking a cigarette on a motor bike is such a waste of money ..two drags and it's burned down. You might like to let your friend know... save him some money!
ReplyDeleteJust saying... :¬)
Ben:
ReplyDeleteIt worked in Hong Kong, but I'm not sure that it would work in the UK. Brits would find a way to mess it up.
Most of that programme was a party political broadcast for the Tory Party.
Danny:
ReplyDeleteI was suprised that you didn't comment on the other photograph, you know the one of the glass of water.... :)
tris..
ReplyDeleteWell the £4.8tr debt is going to have to be paid off sometime. Once we get rid of the 5 million useless public sector workers ( keep 2 million nurses / firemen etc ) there will need to be a sea change in our culture. Soup kitchens and scavenging will be the norm and only a zero tax rate will make working worthwhile for millions.
We now have 55% public sector to 45% private sector. Worse in Northern Ireland ( 70% public sector). This is as bad as the old USSR before it ran out of money and collapsed.
With Greece now junk bond status and Ireland now calling in the IMF the rest will follow shortly. Just think of the anarchy when the eurozone fails. We should pre empt this by setting up a new tax system that will give us an advantage when the carnage kicks in and investors are looking for a safe haven for their investment wealth.
Well Ben, if the Eurozone fails we are all doomed. The UK will be finished and Scotland in particular, as it has a higher export percentage to the Union than the rest of the UK.
ReplyDeleteScotland's dependency on public sector (apart from being inevitable because of its size and population distribution) was made far bigger by that arch hater of all things European, Margaret Hilda.
If we pay off all these workers that you suggest we will be in all sorts of trouble don't you think? 40% unemployment?
In any case, last week's unrest has shown the way that things are going. Unrest will be a feature of UK life in the coming months.
Once the prices start rising on things that we HAVE to have, like gas and electricity (specially in what promises to be a hard winter) and the government does nothing to curb this (unlike the French government which caps the rises in essentials); once the VAT goes up and the petrol goes up; public transport costs go up, services decrease, including the all important health service; police numbers are cut; courts have less money; prisons are even more overcrowded....
I think I'll emigrate to Liechtenstein...
I wonder if there's a spare room in that schloss...
tris..
ReplyDeleteThe eurozone will fail and after a few years of chaos we will trade with individual countries again like we did for hundreds of years.
Being out of the euro we do have a small window of opportunity to set our own tax and interest rates to try and pre empt the coming chaos.
The 40% cut in the public sector workforce will happen eventually anyway so it's better to get moving now rather than doing it over a few months like East Germany etc were forced to do in 1989.
Tris....No, sadly I've never seen Vaduz, nor much of anyplace else outside of Missouri for that matter. The only "mountains" I've ever seen with any degree of regularity are the Missouri and Arkansas "Ozarks".....nice, but most assuredly NOT the Alps.
ReplyDeleteYea Tris, as soon as I saw the other picture I definitely did in fact take note of the Chancellor's water glass. The readers of Munguin's Republic may not realize that they are observing Mr. Osborne's brilliant but exceedingly subtle plan to increase revenues for the Exchequer.
The Chancellor will begin spending all his time in bars (pubs) betting the drunks about the height of his glass in relation to its circumference. They will of course think that this really slender glass is, in fact, taller than its distance around. He will bet the other way, and they will lose the bet. Even a glass that is really tall and thin like this, is almost always bigger around.
Turns out the human eye simply cannot visualize the circumference of an object, in relation to its height. So a guy can win a bar bet almost every time using a tall thin glass. Since he knows that the drunks will ALWAYS be fooled by this, it's clear that the Tories have one shrewd dude in the person of the Chancellor and his slender drinking glass. :-)
And of course the Brits again take the prize for naming their public officials. How cool is it that the Second Lord of the Treasury is called the "Chancellor of the Exchequer" and NOT, for example as we yanks would say "Secretary of the Treasury."
And speaking of sure fire bar bets, there's one that is great in the states. You ask what official government residence is "10 Downing Street." People will always think that it the official home of the Prime Minister of the UK. Then of course you win the bet by knowing that it is in fact the official residence of The First Lord of the Treasury. If I spent much time in bars, I'm sure I'd win a ton of money with this piece of information I received long ago from Tris.
Well now, how was THAT for off-topic? (But Tris WAS the one that mentioned that water glass....LOL.)
tris,
ReplyDeleteLooks to me like one of Lard Foulkes "castles in the air". My mate has an ash-tray on his bike but he's too lazy to use it.
Ben,
ReplyDeleteI'll mention your plan next time I'm whispering sweet nothings in wee Cathy's ear/
brownlie..
ReplyDeleteha ha you're wasting your time. She didn't even know the difference between debt and deficit ;)
Hum... we'll see Ben.
ReplyDeleteI just wonder how we are going to live with all these people out of work and utterly broke, and not enough housing benefit to pay their rents; people desperate to sell their houses so the prices crash..
All of them chasing the few jobs, and no one wanting to employ them because they have been in the public sector.
But never mind, Dave's Big Society must be a success. I guess we'll all be taking the beggers off the streets and letting them have our back rooms...
The future doesn't look rosie for anyone, excpet the VERY rich...
Ah Danny, I see you've worked out the secret cunning plan of the second lord of the treasury to balance the books and take even more money from the drinking classes.
ReplyDeleteHow smart you are to have worked that out.
As for mountains, yes, the Alps are fantastic. When I was at the university in Grenoble, we had a flat looking out into the Alps, the French ones of course, but they were beautiful none the less.
The thunder and lightning storms were one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen.
But I'm sure the Rockies must be at least as spectacular. I'd love to see Oregon and Idaho, Montana, Wyoming...
In Scotland the finance dude is called finance secretary, so it's only in London they give themselves posh titles. It covers a bit for the complete and utter mess they make of everything.
PS... you never cease to amaze me with your fund of knowledge. I would always have said that the tall glass was higher than it is round... despite once having known (and then forgotten) about Pi D adn Pi r squared!!
I can just see the fat lard living up there with the princely family. After all is a shloss... and the dear old fellow has rather a reputation for being sloshed....
ReplyDeleteBen... You must be careful not to insult the fragrant Cathie in front of Brownlie!
ReplyDeleteThey have a special relationship. (Don't read that Mum!)
LOL @ Tris....Ah NOW I know why it's called a schloss. Very good. :) Indeed yes, there are some beautiful mountains in the western states. As you will recall, my avatar is the view of the eastern front of the Grand Teton Range in western Wyoming. I recently bought a new computer with Windows 7 which has pre-installed wallpaper pictures. One of them is a beautiful view of the Tetons from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. (The high Sierra Nevada range on the Nevada-California border is also rugged and beautiful.) No doubt some rich guys have some nice "schlosses" there too.....LOL.
ReplyDeletePS Tris...as for "pi R squared". There is an old joke about a boy whose teacher told him pi R squared. He replied, "NO teacher, pie are round....cornbread are square!"
ReplyDeleteNot sure if this works in Scotland actually. Maybe you don't eat cornbread, or cut it in squares for serving. But that's a staple in the corn growing American midwest.
Ooops, I see I've been misspelling it Danny (red faces all round). I thought it looked odd!
ReplyDeleteOne day, maybe, I'll make a trip to the Sierra Nevada! I'll pick you up en route! :)
LOL Danny...
ReplyDeleteNo I don't know what cornbread is... but I get the joke anyway!!
It wasn't you, was it?
Yes Tris, and on that trip into the high Sierras we'll spend some time in the posh casinos at Lake Tahoe on the Nevada side of the state line too.
ReplyDeleteAs for "schloss"....Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa! Truth is, I didn't have a clue what "shloss" OR "schloss" meant and had to look it up in Wikipedia. Then I copied the word for my post from Wiki, not realizing that it was different from your spelling. So no red face on your part is appropriate....LOL.
No, I didn't talk back to teachers like that....LOL. Cornbread BTW is a bread-like food made from corn meal instead of flour. It's usually baked in a deep iron skillet and then cut in squares for serving. It's WONDERFUL!
In that case Danny, we shall have Cornbread a plenty when I win the lottry and make that trip. It's a promise mate!
ReplyDeleteTahoe sounds fun, at least for a little while. It's sophisticated Las Vegas, I've heard.
I should think you're right with 'schloss'. German is not my forté!!
Tris...and Tahoe has the advantage of being situated in beautiful surroundings too. The Mojave Desert around Vegas is interesting and pretty in its way, but the Tahoe casinos are along the Nevada shore of the mountain lake in the eastern high Sierras. Beautiful cool green mountain country.
ReplyDelete"She didn't even know the difference between debt and deficit ;)"
ReplyDeleteYou mean we're 'In debt because of her deficiencies'.
We're there Danny :¬)
ReplyDeleteWell, I dunno about that, CH. Maybe Brownlie is the one who can best decribe her deficiencies...?
ReplyDeletetris,
ReplyDeleteOh! knickers.
Ewwww John boy, I hope my mum's not reading this...
ReplyDelete