Attacks on bogus welfare claimants ignore the elephant in the room of those other non-contributors: tax evaders

By Mike Aistrop

I am becoming more and more irritated with the continuous attacks on the people who are claiming benefits. The benefit system is a God send to people who have fallen on hard times and need help. Yet this system is attacked, picked and poked at. I do agree that some people take the taxpayer for a ride – though I think this could be said for most systems – and these people should be stripped of their entitlement for robbing the taxpayer. But this is small fry when you take into account the amount of tax revenue lost and where “part is avoidance. A significant amount is evasion.“

The amount of tax that is taken away from this country is in the region of £18.5 billion per year, and yet nobody is saying much about this. The forecast for unemployment costs will be “£4.85 billion in 2008/9 to £9.28 billion in 2009/10 and £11.59 billion in 2010/11”. Which in the current climate is to some extent understandable, yet if we could get hold of the tax that is being removed from Britain, it would cover the costs of this increase. Simple really, or is it?

If it was simple why is there little movement to get it back. Is there fear that if you rock the apple cart some of the apples will fall off? Or is it that the people and organisations doing this have more power than the Government and that they are running rings around the Government? Is it right that some high earners pay less tax proportionally than a cleaner who cleans their office? Are the media and the Government focusing on easy, defenceless targets rather than dealing with the elephant in the room?

So, three questions:

1 – What would make those who would like to pay less tax willing to pay a little more?

2 – Should or could the Government do something about the tax that is currently not being paid?

3 – Is it a problem that some individuals and organisations avoid paying the full amount of tax due?

In Unity,

MA