Christian Aid believes the rich in Britain pay too little tax.
A holy alliance of church groups and bishops is demanding that Gordon Brown closes legal loopholes used by the super-rich to avoid tax.
And it is their business because?
Christian Aid is part of the problem here. Relying on taxpayer subsidies from Britain’s Department for International Development, it is at the forefront of demanding ever increasing quantities of taxpayers’ money to thrown at “development aid”.
Ah, yes, yet another special interest group that wants to interfere in our lives. In this instance, wants to steal money from us. According to Christian Aid:
Andrew Pendleton, a senior campaigner at Christian Aid, said: ‘This is an economic issue. But it’s a moral one too. Is using perfectly legal methods of minimising tax right? The answer is no.’
Excuse me?!? What right does this nasty little statist presume to lecture others about morality? The money I earn is mine – because I earned it. If I want to give it to charity, then it should be my decision and I should choose the charity – and, frankly, any aid to Africa is firmly off my list. As pointed out by Alex Singleton in the article from the Globalisation Institute’s response, aid just doesn’t work:
Yet from 1960 to 1997, Africa received the equivalent of six Marshall Plans of development aid. Development aid over the last half-century has been a massive failure, damaging Africa’s prospects, not helping them.
There is a very simple rule of thumb when it comes to development aid: more aid causes less growth.
This is the old “give a man a fish and he eats today, yet teach him how to fish and he feeds himself” argument. What Africa needs (and frequently asks for) is free trade, not handouts that find their way into corrupt government officials’ Swiss Bank accounts and create increased dependency like a drug addict craving the next fix. I will not, therefore, take lectures on morality nor be told I pay too little tax (frankly, I pay far too much tax) from some religious fruitcake on a mission.
The answer to Andrew Pendleton’s question is that tax minimisation is not only legal, it is desirable. The less money that goes to the exchequer (and finds its way into the bank accounts of special interest groups like Christian Aid) the more is sloshing around the economy and creating growth. I suggest that instead of raiding our bank accounts, Mr Pendleton learns the art of creative thinking. Frankly, charities should get nothing from the tax payer. Charity should be just that; charity, freely given with no strings attached. If Christian Aid is worth giving to, people will donate. If not, well, then it will cease to exist.
Hence my current poll on the separation of church and state.
Longrider, I really don’t believe you were ever in the Labour party. And if you were, you were clearly in the wrong party with comments like these.
What we earn is NOT neccessarily what we deserve. The market is full of distortions right across the earning spectrum (although there is some level of meritocracy in the 20k-30k bracket) – left to the market we would still be sending children to work 12 hour days.
The market HAS to be regulated if it is to work in any way properly and for the benefit of society. Those who control the capital can pay themselves what they like, those at the bottom need protection from exploitation (whether protected by mass union membership or better still by government elected under a proper democracy not the dysfunctional democracy we have at the moment.)
Labour, like every other commodity has a market price. There is no reason to regulate it. If I am unhappy with the price I get for my labour, I seek work with another employer who offers a better package, bonuses, basic salary or whatever, just as I shop around for the best price on purchases.
Frankly, what I earn at the moment is well below what I deserve as I am currently working out of my usual market. It is, however, the going rate for the type of work, so I accept it while I carry on looking at the job market for something more suitable.
This country is seriously overtaxed. Much of what we pay is squandered by inefficient bureaucracy. Less government would mean less and more focussed spending.
However, back to the basic point; squeezing the “rich” does not work, it has never worked and it will never work and is nothing more than the politics of envy. And frankly the idea of the government deciding which charities my money goes to is deeply abhorrent to me. I would never willingly support an African aid charity and absolutely never, ever, support a religious one.
I most certainly was a member of the Labour party. I believed (and still do) in the principles of a just and fair society. There was a time (a long, long time ago) when I would have wholeheartedly agreed with you. However, when reality hits one’s opinions square in the face, it’s time to reassess one’s opinion and that is what I did. I realised that the Labour party is not a liberal one and therefore is incompatible with my politics as are pretty much all of the UK parties.