Re: Olius Re: Naselus
"......There is a difference you are missing. Using ISAs and pensions to save paying tax is using certain financial instruments for the purposes for which they were explicitly designed...." You are assuming I was suggesting pension schemes that take advantage of tax laws are just as bad. That was not my point. My point is those pension funds get invested in the stock markets and you can bet that the spread of investments will include those big, bad tax avoiders like Starbucks and Amazon, as well as hundreds of smaller companies that are also doing as much tax planning and avoidance as they can. Even the Co-op had a hard time keeping their "morally acceptable" ethical investments clean (http://fincris.net/the-ethical-failures-of-the-cooperative-bank/).
Heck, even those unions run by "Red or dead" firebrands that shriek at every opportunity about "evil capitalists aggressively avoiding tax immorally" stick their investments into funds that use tax avoidance or other "immoralities" (http://thetyee.ca/News/2012/11/13/BC-Teachers-Pension-Plan/)! Such evangelical lefties also often later seem to be very selective of how they apply their "morals" to their investments (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2539801/Arthur-Scargill-branded-hypocrite-trying-London-flat-Right-Buy-laws-old-foe-Margaret-Thatcher.html).
".....I'm not sure I can even be bothered to attack the arguement about "leave these poor companies alone - they pay LOADS of tax via employee contributions...." Yeah, we all know that actually translates to the fact you can't argue it. It's not the first time someone has pushed such selective leftie claptrap, as TW pointed out in the first paragraph of the article.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
