THE DUBIOUS TAX AFFAIRS OF THE DUCHY OF CORNWALL

If you missed it, Dispatches has an interesting feature on the payment of tax and the Duchy of Cornwall.

Interestingly the programme must have been made before the revelation that Margaret Hodge's family company is perhaps not all it should be, when it comes to tax matters.

Hodge, however, does make a good point that although the Duke of Rothsay pays income tax, it is done so on a voluntary basis. The state has no powers to demand tax from him. No one, she indicates, should pay tax on 'a voluntary basis'. Quite right. There should be rules and they should apply to me and Charles Mountbatten equally... oh, and to Margaret Hodge.

The thrust of the programme is that the duchy pays neither corporation tax nor capital gains tax, and in not doing so has advantage over other commercial entities doing exactly the same thing; that because of this the estate makes a great deal more money than an equivalent that wasn't owned by a royal and that it is all rather 1913 rather than 2013 in its running. A side line in teh programme is that for all the Baron Renfew talks about green this and green that, some of his business affairs don't appear to reflect his stated concerns.

Time the thing was ended and the heir to the throne relied only on the £16 million he gets from the state to run his office.

I JUST DON'T BELIEVE IT!

I’ve just watched Richard Wilson’s investigation into what was billed as the “British” rail system, but turned out to be the “English” system. Nonetheless, it was interesting and, as much of the system crosses the Border, appropriate for the blog.

The programme contains far too many facts and examples to record here, but the title sums up my overall impression.

We have the most expensive rail fares in Europe, and, despite having a largely private railway, we also have the biggest government subsidies in Europe.

Rail travel has become far more popular over the last decade with passenger numbers increasing by some 40%, but with seats increasing by only 10%, giving rise to overcrowding of the kind seen in Mumbai.

The pricing system is described as Kafkaesque.

It’s certainly expensive. A season ticket between London and Reading cost £4000!! When “Which” surveyed fares its was given the wrong fare in 50% of enquiries. Despite this the companies adopt “zero tolerance” to passengers with wrong tickets with on the spot fines.

Complex details of when and how to use various tickets leave tourists and irregular users lost. Amazingly if you get out of the train at an earlier stop than you bought the ticket for, you will be charged the full fare at the ticket barriers! Wilson himself had the right ticket, but not his Pensioners’ Railcard. As a result he was charged £273 full fare (Manchester to London). He could have gone to New York for that! Fortunately he wasn’t going from Manchester to Kyle of Lochalsh (£500+).

There is no logic to the fares. Bath-London is £159; Bath-Paris is £120. Go figure. And the wondrous deals that are advertised are often almost impossible to get. As an example Wilson picks a deal of £8 single Portsmouth-London. In fact the only fare he can find is £30.

Network Rail cost has spiralled within the last decade from £1billion-£5 billion and the company is £24 billion in debt, so £1 billion of the £5 billion goes to the banks (where else!). But no wonder the subsidy has grown. Repair costs are between 30% and 50% more expensive here than in mainland Europe.

Ticket bookings by phone are run by an automated voice recognition system. Now Richard Wilson has a very clear speaking voice, albeit with a Scottish accent, but his attempt to use the service was more of a comedy than “One foot in the grave”.

The bulk of the money is being spent in the South East of England with £800 million each on St Pancras and Kings Cross. Stations in England’s poorer North, are left falling down.

The overall situation is nothing less than a farce. If the government needed just one reason to keep its nose out of foreign affairs and concentrate on domestic ones, the forth world rail service could well be it.

Fur coat and no knickers Britain.

Pics: (1)Over funded, under performing, overcrowded, most expensive in Europe, dirty, late... some adjectives to describe British trains, many of which date to the mid 1970s. (2) SNCF, French Railways by comparison are cheaper and faster and a joy to travel on. (3) The St Pancras Station and Hotel had an £800 million face lift at our expense. No such finding for Edinburgh Waverley or Haymarket though. (4) Theresa Villiers, the minister responsible for trains in England, has had a positive experience of the railway system. Probably she was in Japan at the time. A little of this smug woman would go a long way.

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PAY YOUR TAXES, GEORGE

Further to the Dispatches Programme which Cynical Highlander highlighted last week on this blog, I came across this petition.

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/osborne-pay-your-taxes#petition

It is a ridiculous state of affairs that the people at the top of government, and in particular those who are responsible for, for whatever reasons good or bad, showering utter misery on large numbers of the population, to be taking advantage of tax loopholes to save themselves millions in taxes. Taxes which would otherwise be helping to pay down the massive deficit left to the government by the previous administration.

The petition text is as follows:

George Osborne, pay your fair share of taxes!

Stop using loopholes to avoid millions in tax. Start closing tax loopholes and make a real effort to get everyone to pay their fair share.

George Osborne likes to say "we're all in this together." But last week, Channel 4 revealed that he's avoiding paying tax. He pays accountants to help him find loopholes which Channel 4 reckons will help him dodge £1.6million. These kind of "legal tax dodges" cost the rest of us billions.

How can we trust George Osborne to do all he can to close tax loopholes when he uses the loopholes himself?

The government doesn't want to tackle tax dodging, but together we can embarrass them into action. Let's build a huge petition against George Osborne's tax dodges. We can prove that as long as he's not paying his fair share of tax, the public won't buy his claims that "we're all in this together".

I’m seriously incredulous that there are members of the Cabinet who are engaged in this kind of thing...just as the last lot were, except in the last parliament they put their tax accountants on expenses.

Tax loopholes are legal. I’m not suggesting that Osborne, Hammond and Mitchell are doing anything illegal, just immoral, and decidedly two faced when they spout that “we’re all in this together”

Until they plug the tax loopholes they should really be saying “YOU’RE all in this together”.

Pics: Osborne in the drinking uniform of the Bullingdon Club; Mitchell and Hammond. All of them Right Honourables!

OINK OINK, I'M GOING TO BE A LORD!

Another two of the little piggies have been caught trying to sell themselves for money (there’s a name for that, isn’t there? Starts with a P, huh?)

Adam Ingram, a former Armed Forces minister, “regretted” being caught out by undercover reporters who recorded him offering to exploit government contacts in return for lobbying fees. He has said that he was conned into attending what he thought was a confidential interview for a US company thinking of setting up an advisory board. He was recorded boasting that he could draw on a pool of out-of-work ministers who could be used to harness contacts in return for a fee from the lobbying firm.

Poor scone! I imagine that anyone who could be so easily conned into a sting operation like this is too dumb to be of much use to any private company when he is no longer an MP. So bang goes that particular income strand Mr Ingram.

The other little piggie is the equally obscure Richard Caborn (that’s pretty close to “cab”) who was apparently some sort of sports minister. He was taped claiming that he might get a peerage and that that would "boost his chances" of extracting valuable information from the corridors of Westminster. (Woops! Firstly why would this obscure man get a peerage? And secondly I’d be interested in an explanation as to how his possible ennoblement would “boost his chances” in that way, and from whom, would he get the information.) He discussed the services he could offer including building relations with ministers who were “good friends”. His asking price is apparently £2,500 “plus expenses” per day. (Incidentally, Dick my lad, you could probably forget the peerage now old thing!)

Needless to say, in time honoured Labour fashion, the Sheffield MP denied any wrongdoing (yawn) and burbled on about his comments being taken “out of context”, and giving the “impression of something improper going on”. Like there wasn’t!!!!!

Given that Ingram said that he charged £1,500 a day or £1,000 a meeting and could make up to £173,000 a year from outside earnings on top of his £65,000 salary as an MP, I wonder if his constituents are concerned that their drains or school places might possibly take second place in the Ingram scheme of things.

The last set of egregious Labour fellows caught by the Sunday Times/Dispatches team (Hewitt, Byers and Hoon) was turfed out of the Labour Party, pending an investigation. If he goes on at this rate Brown won’t have to fight a general election to be chucked out of Downing Street. His majority is disappearing like sna’ aff a dyke!

Pictured: Some nice pigs, then Adam Ingram and then finally Richard Cabforhire, no sorry Caborn. =========>