The Tories have said in public that they will clamp down on tax avoidance, and to this end their slime-ball-in-chief George Osbourne has stated that tax avoidance is 'morally repugnant'. However, it looks like our duplicitous Tory Government is ensuring that the wealthy can happily evade tax all they want by signing dodgy deals, or 'Rubik Agreements', with the tax-haven of Switzerland, therby undermining serious European attempts to get the rich to pay their fair share in tax. Does anyone seriously believe that the Tories, who after all exist to keep the rich rich, will ever effectively clamp down on the tax avoidance of the wealthy?
'In August last year, Switzerland threw a huge spanner into the works. It signed bilateral tax deals - "Rubik Agreements" - with Germany and Britain, based on a very different principle: wealthy people with Swiss accounts can preserve their secrecy and, instead, merely pay a one-off, withholding tax on assets, and a bit of future income. "Trust us," say Swiss bankers - who have centuries of form helping the world's wealthy get around the rules of civilised society.
'The British tax authorities promised it would yield a tantalising bounty: a one-off £4-£7bn for cash-parched, austerity Britain. But the deals are riddled with catastrophic loopholes, some so egregious as to amount to signs planted in the text saying: "Evade me here". You can skip around them with discretionary trusts, foundations, insurance wrappers, offshore companies and more - or just shift your wealth to Singapore.' (Guardian article).
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