Gary Barlow

[BillyStubbsTears]

What's his worst crime?

A) Being a boring t**t?
B) Making the dullest music this side of Keane?
C) Being a thieving bas**rd who deprives my kids' school of the funding it needs?
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/may/10/take-that-stars-face-the-music-after-tax-avoidance-ruling

[afro goal machine]

Sums him up for me

[IC1967]

I defy anyone to say that 'Patience' is not a classic pop song. And this is a statement from someone who hates pop music and loves heavy metal.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Classic pop music makes you want to scream with happiness, dance till you drop, cry like you'll never be happy again or f**k someone's brains out.

That one doesn't come anywhere onto the radar. That one is manufactured, anodyne shite.
It sounds like a Eurovision entry from a Belgian accountant.

[RobTheRover]

...with a beard.

[GazLaz]

He's still paid more tax than all of us put together. Tried to save a few quid through what he thought was a loop hole. Many would do the same if they were advised to.

[Hounslowrover]

Cameron wasn't too pleased when Jimmy Carr did something similar and he made his views clear that he should not avoid tax.  Cameron is strangely quiet about Barlow.  Hypocritical or what?!!

[silent majority]

There wouldn't be any need for all these charity events they indulge in if they paid their share.

[BillyStubbsTears]

He's still paid more tax than all of us put together. Tried to save a few quid through what he thought was a loop hole. Many would do the same if they were advised to.

Ignorance of the tax system, or failing to stick by its rules (even in good faith) is no defence. The onus is on the individual to make sure that they are behaving within the requirements of HMRC. I found that out when I became the director of a company. I wrote to the local tax office 4 times asking them to send me self-assessment forms, so that I could fill them in and officially tell them I was receiving no income and therefore had no tax to pay. I got nothing from them for 2 years. Then they finally sent me the forms, along with a fine for not having submitted the forms on time. When I appealed, I was told that it was my responsibility to ensure that I dealt with my tax affairs promptly and accurately.

That's the legal position.

The moral position is that this is an example of an extremely rich person trying to wriggle out of his duties to society by engaging in what anyone can see is a fiddle. I don't give a shite how much he has already paid. A fiddle is a fiddle. A fiddler is a fiddler.

So f*** Barlow. He can pay what he owes. My only concern is that he might decide to record some more insipid cack to cover his costs.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Cameron wasn't too pleased when Jimmy Carr did something similar and he made his views clear that he should not avoid tax.  Cameron is strangely quiet about Barlow.  Hypocritical or what?!!

I note that Cameron said that Barlow should not lose his OBE because he received that for services to charidee.

I wonder what his take is on Savile losing his knighthood?

[IC1967]

All Barlow did was to try and minimise his tax liabilities based on the advice of his accountant. Good on him. We should all try and pay as little tax as possible. Far better for the money to be in our hands than for it to be wasted by politicians trying to buy our votes with bribes using our own money.

Anyone that volunteers to pay tax when they can 'get away' with it is a fool.

[BillyStubbsTears]

I wonder what Cameron's response would have been if an accountant had developed a fraudulent way for someone to claim benefits that they weren't entitled to, and the Treasury had been £20million down as a result?

Do you reckon he'd say that they should just pay it back, there's a good chap, and let's say no more about it?

Doing your damnedest to cheat the system is perfectly OK if you are a wealthy Tory party supporter. Enroll ing in blatantly fraudulent scams to defraud the rest of us is all part of the jolly game. The worst that can happen is that you might actually have to pay what you owe if you get caught. But the people who defraud us by cheating on benefit claims are the scum of the earth who are undermining civilised society.

The hypocrisy is staggering.

[IC1967]

But the people who defraud us by cheating on benefit claims are the scum of the earth who are undermining civilised society.

That's a bit harsh. I'm sure not all benefits cheats are scum. They are just doing their best to survive.

[Snods Shinpad 2]

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/apr/20/cameron-family-tax-havens

David Cameron's father ran a network of offshore investment funds to help build the family fortune that paid for the prime minister's inheritance, the Guardian can reveal.

Though entirely legal, the funds were set up in tax havens such as Panama City and Geneva, and explicitly boasted of their ability to remain outside UK tax jurisdiction.

At the time of his death in late 2010, Ian Cameron left a fortune of £2.74m in his will, from which David Cameron received the sum of £300,000.

[Milepostuk]

Can anyone honestly say that they would not try to pay as little tax as possible if it was an option. If you're paid through paye it clearly isn't. I don't blame anyone for trying to avoid tax i blame the system which allows it. Having said that, this time the system worked so GB will be paying his tax. No problem!

[RobTheRover]

The point is he TRIED to avoid paying it, FAILED, and was EXPOSED.

You make it sound like Barlow is happy to cough up his fair share.  I'll bet he is, but only if the alternative is jail time (which would have been on the cards if it was anyone else)

[jucyberry]

It's a pity there weren't more people with an attitude like J.K. Rowling's... She is happy to pay her taxes and doesn't try to horde it in off shore accounts and dodgy schemes.. She believes in putting something back into a system that was her lifeline when she needed it.