I used to like Jimmy Carr

[Fretwired]

I can't stand the bloke and I thought his statement is utterly cringe worthy. He should just have had the balls to admit he took financial advice and what he did wasn't illegal. There's too much 'success envy' in the UK - he earned his money through hard work .. why should he have pay large amounts of tax to support some dosser and his 15 kids or a pair of Old Etonians who claim to run the country.

[Brio]

I don't think Jimmy Carr has anything to apologise, or show remorse, for.

Agreed, but he saw a situation building that could certainly present him in a bad light and reacted in a prompt and non slimey manner. I suspect he has alienated none of his fans and as I say has come out of this rather well in my eyes with none of the aweful whining of the MP expenses fiddlers who were offering so many excuses as to why they broke the rules, and as has been pointed out Jimmy Carr didn't break any laws.

[Not_the_DJ]

He should just have had the balls to admit he took financial advice and what he did wasn't illegal.

err, that is what he said:

I met with a financial advisor and he said to me 'Do you want to pay less tax? It's totally legal'. I said 'Yes'."

[RocknRollDave]

I don't see what the fuss is about. Jimmy Carr has only done what anyone else would do - who is going to pay the top rate of tax if there's a legal means of avoiding doing so? [The Rolling Stones, and others, left the UK in the early 70's because of the extortionate taxation rate levied on their earnings].

Couldn't agree more. I'd wager that the main reason behind the mass condemnation of this is people's jealousy at how much these folk earn.

[stickyfiddle]

The only news story here is that Jimmy Carr's accountant is clearly well worth the money he's paid.

I have no problem with him moving money to wherever it will be leached upon the least. It's entirely incumbent on the government to change the rules if they want to stop people doing exactly the same.

Ultimately it's none of our business what people do with their money and taxes, as long as they don't break the law. In any case, I'd wager Carr will still not be paying the full amount, but merely moving the cash to a different loophole. And so he should.

[HerbieTheRadDorklift]

What's the problem?

"You wanna pay less tax? It's legal"

"Yes"



They should probably make it illegal if it's "wrong"

[BlindLemonAde]

"I'm not in favour of tax avoidance obviously, but I don't think it is for politicians to lecture people about morality. I think what the politicians need to do is - if the wrong thing is happening - change the law to prevent that tax avoidance happening."

Well, he gets the point about politicians and morals, but fails to spot that politicians make a moral judgement every time they identify a "wrong thing".

And who's to say ISAs aren't amoral tax-avoidance schemes? If paying tax is a good thing, surely ISAs should be scrapped?

I suspect the tax system is a huge "fudge", tinkered with and amended by various governments to suit their purposes, with each amendment leaving possible loopholes to be exploited by clever people, and good luck to 'em. If the politicians did their job properly, the loopholes wouldn't exist, and tax avoidance couldn't happen.

However, we seem to have entered a world where legal=moral, and illegal=immoral(unless I want to do it for my own selfish reasons). It's when people stray into the grey area of legal actions which some consider immoral, the confusion arises...

[frankus]

I didn't like Jimmy Carr before and I still don't - his use of pancake make-up is intimidating and he mixes one good joke to 5 or 6 shit ones, I'd rather he shut up between the good ones like Steven Wright.

Tax? I'm not on a K2 scheme but I do think anyone not getting an accountant is probably losing more money than they need to and face it, it's not going to put glass back in the bus-shelter, or the pot-holes down your road so let them get their teeth into it as VAT (if at all).

[ianpdq]

With an outburst from Cameron like that I wonder what he's trying to cover up now

[musophilr]

What's the problem?

"You wanna pay less tax? It's legal"

"Yes"



They should probably make it illegal if it's "wrong"

^ This. I've never liked Jimmy Carr but I don't blame him for not paying more than he has to.

BTW I learned from my accountant that ear plugs are not tax deductible because you might use them at a gig you go to for pleasure instead of as your job. WTF??