A “tax efficient” donation to the Labour Party? – Media roundup: June 6th, 2013

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A “tax efficient” donation to the Labour Party?

John Mills gave the party shares in his shopping channel company, JML, valued at £1.65 million in January. In an interview with The Telegraph, Mr Mills said that the donation was made in shares rather than cash so the tax on the deal would be significantly reduced. Describing the donation as “tax efficient”, he said the form of the donation was agreed with figures in Labour’s fund-raising team. Mr Mills said that if he had given £1.65 million from his own income he would have had to pay nearly half of that sum to the taxman. Asked why he made the donations in shares, Mr Mills said: “To be honest with you, it is the most tax efficient way of doing this. “Because, otherwise, you get no tax relief on donations to political parties for understandable reasons.” – Telegraph

IMF admits: we failed to realise the damage austerity would do to Greece

The International Monetary Fund admitted it had failed to realise the damage austerity would do to Greece as the Washington-based organisation catalogued mistakes made during the bailout of the stricken eurozone country. In an assessment of the rescue conducted jointly with the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European commission, the IMF said it had been forced to override its normal rules for providing financial assistance in order to put money into Greece. Fund officials had severe doubts about whether Greece’s debt would be sustainable even after the first bailout was provided in May 2010 and only agreed to the plan because of fears of contagion. While it succeeded in keeping Greece in the eurozone, the report admitted the bailout included notable failures. “Market confidence was not restored, the banking system lost 30% of its deposits and the economy encountered a much deeper than expected recession with exceptionally high unemployment.” – Guardian

Other highlights

• Will this welfare speech turn things round for Ed Miliband? It’s a big ask – Guardian
• Cameron has already picked his message for the next election – and “cleaning up politics” isn’t it – Rafael Behr, New Statesman
• Michael Gove is not qualified to tell us how kids should be educated –Stuart Maconie, Mirror