Say it loud, say it proud, tax avoidance is legal

Growing irritation about all the stuff in the Graun recently on tax avoidance and companies that engage therein - even RBS apparently, which is thus cleverly depriving the public purse with both hands. The paper has been blethering about this for a while, but it really is preaching to the converted, since no one but Graun readers wants to pay more tax.

Those holy fools would do better to write about the similarities between the Ponzi fraud engaged in by Mr Bernard Madoff and the National Insurance scheme that allegedly pays pensions - but they won't, because they can't see beyond public spending as the great cure-all - hence the clamour for every last penny to be grasped so that it can then be wasted by political incompetents. Perhaps it is hand-wringing guilt about having relatively good jobs when all about them are losing theirs. Sir Compton never has that trouble.

While it is worth recalling Denis Healy's dictum that the "difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is the thickness of a prison wall", it should be pointed out that the former is perfectly legal and that moral judgments about companies and individuals "not doing their bit" for society do not actually come into it. The fact of the matter is that the any govt could close every loophole going, but they won't because companies would not want to do business in such taxing - ha ha - conditions. Most people know this, except, presumably, the holyfoolistas of the Graun and their deluded audience.

In any case, when Sir Compton employs a tax lawyer, he is injecting money into the economy and, by helping to pay the lawyer's school fees and medical bills - and run his Bentley - he is engaging in trickle-down economics. So where's the problem?