Paradise Papers: Queen's estate invested millions of pounds offshore

Not keen on him either. Still think the best story about him though is at a U2 concert. At a break between songs he went into a lecture about starvation in the third world and started clapping slowly above his head. He told the audience that every time he claps, a child in Africa dies. Some wag in the audience shouts out "Well stop F**cking clapping then!".

 

I don't have any problem with people being wealthy through their own work. If someone were to, for arguments sake, invent something that loads of people buy, then of course that person should reap the benefits of coming up with it. However, that inventor relies on all sorts - an educated workforce, infrastructure like roads, people who buy it etc. so I think it's only right that they pay tax as they have benefited from being part of our society. Bono, as appalling as I think he is, made music that people like and buy. Similarly, he should pay back in to the society that helped get him where he is.

The Queen however has done nothing to have her wealth or power. She has no talent for anything as such that I'm aware of. Poor people who do nothing and get money for it are lambasted and get dodgy TV programmes about them. When a rich person does it though... silence

 

So adding to the discussion that is the best you can come up with? How about an intelligent rebuttal or is that too dificult for you?

 

Predictably, this was the today's front page headline on most of the papers we stock in the library. Comments overheard from the kids were: 'Doesn't the Queen not have to pay tax anyway as she's the Queen?' and 'Wow, £10M, that's nothing when you're talking about the Queen, it's not like she invested billions there'.

 

In your dreams

 

Stockholm Syndrome is real.

 

I'd like to take you up on that wager and go as far as to say 99% is avoidance bordering on dodgy.

 

We own The Duchy of Lancaster not the Queen. Are we cheating ourselves out of tax here or what? The sooner we get a Republic the better.

 

Ahem. If millions can be deposited off shore then explain why the royals came cap in hand to the tax payers for a sub to do up a crumbling palace.

 

I'm really struggling to get excited about this as it seems this is a load of the usual royal bashers wanting to be annoyed about something - and then suprise suprise they are getting themselves worked up about something they want to be annoyed about.

However one thing to consider.

The Cayman Islands (/ˈkeɪmən/ or /keɪˈmæn/) is an autonomous British Overseas Territory in the western Caribbean Sea.

I.e. The queen is as much the Queen of the Cayman Islands as the Queen of England. Being a republican aside - is it really so terrible that a queen invests money in somewhere she is the queen of?

I'd be jolly upset should the Canadians and Australians be just as mad as some seem to be on the basis that the queen invests" offshore" in the UK to avoid Canadian and Australian income tax.....?

This really is the usual sensationalist cr@p we are served up almost continually now by the BBC and the Guardian.

 

It's world news pal.

Not annoyed just most of us aren't surprised by this small insight into t' royals and others corruption,tax evasion etc..

fwiw at a guess I'd say 99% of Barnsley is anti royal to differing degrees

 

Given avoidence evasion and uncollected are three different things could you produce figures detailing all three rather than lumping them into one. It would provide greater clarity.

 

Best tell the HMRC that. Much as the DWP conflate official error with fraud in benefit terms that is how they choose to examine the figures.

 

Then its not worth the paper its printed on.

 

Another day - another witch hunt by the media at the forefront, surprise surprise, the Guardian and the BBC.
An example is a 'lad made good' - love him or loath him, Lewis Hamilton is a successful sportsman and a 4 x WDC. He has business interests in many countries and employs a team of tax advisers, accountants and lawyers to oversee them. Yet the emotive words like "tax dodge" and demonising him, as with many others goes way beyond factual reporting. The copy under the headlines shows the IoM authorities have denied allegations by the media that any impropriety took place and everything was totally legal and fully compliant with the regulations and a large number of similar schemes exist in the IoM (as did a top 'tax specialist barrister'.)
Most of the 'faux outrage' is driven by jealousy and even where there is some justification that in certain cases t is morally wrong, it is the system and world governments that should be the target NOT individuals who seek to minimise tax liability which, let's face it most people (with a few exceptions) with lesser means seek to do.
Although it will probably provoke the response "good riddance" I am sad, when viewed from afar, what a lot of the UK appears to be turning into, a divisìve, bitter, jealous, vindictive and overly PC country, and I'm glad I left. Italy like the EU may have its problems but people in general do not seem as eager to hit the 'self-destruct' button as they now do in the UK.
Brexit with the remain vs Leave divide is just another symptom of the malaise and not the cause.

 

Narrative

 

Most of you , what you mean the 4/5 Compo fans on ere ,

 

I think that says more about the current state of world news - constantly pandering to synthetic outrage of those desperate to be offended more than the actual revelations.

As the daily mash put it 'Rich ******** using tax havens' report also claims bears defecate in woods"

 

The queen has no legal liability to pay tax, but she does voluntarily.