It's that groovy tax thang again

Morning folks. First off, mucho apologios for the lack of blogging recently. I've simply been too busy dealing with the financial engineering resulting from the worldwide sensation that is "Let's Kick the Euro into Touch". Inevitably, this has involved a degree of tax dodging, whoops I mean tax planning, with the occasional trip to that well-known holiday destination, the Cayman Islands. It's amazing the people you bump into over there but what nice a chap that Jimmy Carr is. And Tony Blair too.

So it's no surprise that my return post is about tax. As well as my own trans-national comings and goings, I am inspired by today's latest nonsensical blathering from someone in government to the effect that paying your plumber in cash is going to condemn you to the fires of hades. What a busy place hell must be.

If the government keeps telling us what's "morally wrong" about this tax business they are going to make themselves look very stupid and very red-faced. There is no end of government associates who might fall into this category and if Dave and his chums decide to shun them all, then they will be friendless very rapidly (too late to worry about that, I hear you cry!)

Now let's get this straight. Some years ago, a judge laid down the legal bottom line for tax. He said that "there is no obligation on any man to pay a penny more in tax than necessary." Do you pay more in tax than you need to? Possibly but only because you've cocked up or you're not that savvy when it comes to this confusing tax lark. Do you find yourself saying at the end of the tax year, well I've got a few bob spare, I think I'll send it to those nice people at Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs? You do not. So why do we have a go at people in the public eye, who simply follow the same dictum as you and I? Why is this "morally wrong"? Where do you draw the line between Jimmy Carr's cunning little scheme and Mr and Mrs Smith next door who transfer some shares between each other so as to maximise their capital gains tax allowances? Are they morally beyond the pale too? Of course not. The difference is that Jimmy Carr has got a lot more tax to save than Mr and Mrs Smith. Our resentment is directed not so much at the tax dodging but at the fact that some people have a lot more dosh than we do. It's that good old politics of envy again. Remember this obvious truth: you can't dodge tax if you're not liable to it in the first place.

Remember also the following facts:

• British tax law is ludicrously complicated.
• The government is in charge of tax law. They can change it and they regularly do. So tax loopholes are created and/or preserved by the government.
• We are far too heavily taxed.
• The reason for this is that the government spends too much.

So, as always, we are reminded that the root of all evil is not necessarily the love of money but the government's love of spending other people's money. If anything is "morally wrong", it's that.

Must dash now as the plumber's just off and he wants paying...I think he said he'd prefer cash...a further spell in the fiery depths awaits I fear...