Camerons dad and his off shore tax haven

[Dead-Eyed Duck]

The post I responded to was about disruptive wide-boys, nothing to do with educational performance. We were all in the top stream of a secondary modern because there was no room at the grammar school due to the bulge in births after WW2. 2 years before, all but one(12 out of 13) in my primary school had got a grammar school place.

 

Now I totally understand where you are coming from.

 

I was born in 1947 (the boom year after the 2nd world war) and ended up having to go to a grammar school 25 miles away as the local grammar schools were full. Amongst other things I learned there was that IQ is not a measure of common sense.

 

My twin brother (true story this) did not pass the 11 plus exam and went to a secondary modern school. He used to tell me tales of the 'smarties' who used to mess about during lessons and did their best to spoil it for the ones who wanted to learn.

 

We both ended up in decent jobs, although educationally he was a couple of years behind me, as after secondary school he went to a tech college to get his GCE's.

[SNS]

_{I posted the other day that a lot of the 'tax gap' was down to fraud / criminality not tax avoidance. I know that didn't resonate with some of you, even though it is factually correct. I thought those of you that are interested though, may be interested in this that has just been published today http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/public-accounts-committee/news-parliament-2015/tackling-tax-fraud-report-published-15-16/}

[AVB]

_{I posted the other day that a lot of the 'tax gap' was down to fraud / criminality not tax avoidance. I know that didn't resonate with some of you, even though it is factually correct. I thought those of you that are interested though, may be interested in this that has just been published today http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/public-accounts-committee/news-parliament-2015/tackling-tax-fraud-report-published-15-16/}

 

Any idea how they calculate the tax gap? I would have thought that if they know they had a gap the could close it. Or is it just a guess in which case it might, or might not, exist.

[SNS]

Its probably more of an art than a science but there is a fairly detailed series of explanations in here https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/470540/HMRC-measuring-tax-gaps-2015-1.pdf

 

The top down approach works reasonably well for things like VAT (i.e. independent data on consumption is used to work out the tax base, then receipts are deducted from that to arrive at a tax gap), but I suspect is harder for personal income taxes and even harder for corporate income taxes. In any given year I imagine the data could be materially wrong, but if you use it instead to look at trends over time (as they are doing) then it feels to me that it is more of use. And of course, it does help HMRC's case that they are closing the gap over time (which will make some doubt the data therefore !), but that is my own personal sense too - and I speak from a position of seniority in the profession.

[JDog]

What a clever and informative chap you are SNS.

[keg]

HMRC are part of the problem.