Scottish Referendum / Independence - Vol 7

[NoNeed]

They do like hiding news, don't they http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/politic...

[///ajd]

shameless

http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/alex-salmond...

the bitterness ouzes out, does it not?

[Edinburger]

///ajd said:

shameless

http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/alex-salmond...

the bitterness ouzes out, does it not?

No. Nothing bitter there.

[simoid]

It is nice that he's got himself a radio show for his squirrels. Bill Od(d)ie will be running scared. I wonder if Salmond pays 45% income tax on the radio salary, or if it goes into his company. Which of course he won't use for tax avoidance purposes.

[Edinburger]

Topic of interest - Brexit 'would give Holyrood new powers'.

I don't want to discuss the claimed triggering of a second referendum, but does anyone know why those powers would automatically default back to Holyrood, especially as not all the powers were under the devolved parliament before?

[Edinburger]

Also, this "wings" character is surely a wind-up. He/she tried to start a thread in the Scotland forum which died early. Best ignored, if you ask me.

[simoid]

Edinburger said:

Topic of interest - Brexit 'would give Holyrood new powers'.

I don't want to discuss the claimed triggering of a second referendum, but does anyone know why those powers would automatically default back to Holyrood, especially as not all the powers were under the devolved parliament before?

Looks to me like he's saying the Scottish Parliament controls "everything EXCEPT x, y, z", as opposed to "Westminster controls everything but a, b, c which have been passed to the Scottish Parliament".

IE reserved issues are defence, welfare, which have been specifically kept at Westminster, but fisheries has not been named as a power to remain at Westminster...(?)

[simoid]

Edinburger said:

Also, this "wings" character is surely a wind-up. He/she tried to start a thread in the Scotland forum which died early. Best ignored, if you ask me.

I think it was you

[Edinburger]

simoid said:

It is nice that he's got himself a radio show for his squirrels. Bill Od(d)ie will be running scared. I wonder if Salmond pays 45% income tax on the radio salary, or if it goes into his company. Which of course he won't use for tax avoidance purposes.

An allegation of "tax avoidance"?

Remember simoid, tax avoidance is a perfectly legal method of using the tax regime to your own benefit by reducing the amount of tax payable. ISAs are one commonly used method of tax avoidance.

Tax avoidance is perfectly legal. Tax evasion on the other and, is not legal.

[Edinburger]

simoid said:

Edinburger said:

Also, this "wings" character is surely a wind-up. He/she tried to start a thread in the Scotland forum which died early. Best ignored, if you ask me.

I think it was you

Ha ha, it wasn't me!

[Edinburger]

simoid said:

Edinburger said:

Topic of interest - Brexit 'would give Holyrood new powers'.

I don't want to discuss the claimed triggering of a second referendum, but does anyone know why those powers would automatically default back to Holyrood, especially as not all the powers were under the devolved parliament before?

Looks to me like he's saying the Scottish Parliament controls "everything EXCEPT x, y, z", as opposed to "Westminster controls everything but a, b, c which have been passed to the Scottish Parliament".

IE reserved issues are defence, welfare, which have been specifically kept at Westminster, but fisheries has not been named as a power to remain at Westminster...(?)

Yeah, that's possibly it. Interesting point on fisheries. I'll look into it shortly.

[simoid]

Edinburger said:

simoid said:

It is nice that he's got himself a radio show for his squirrels. Bill Od(d)ie will be running scared. I wonder if Salmond pays 45% income tax on the radio salary, or if it goes into his company. Which of course he won't use for tax avoidance purposes.

An allegation of "tax avoidance"?

Remember simoid, tax avoidance is a perfectly legal method of using the tax regime to your own benefit by reducing the amount of tax payable. ISAs are one commonly used method of tax avoidance.

Tax avoidance is perfectly legal. Tax evasion on the other and, is not legal.

Alex Salmond, however, is a great critic of individuals and companies who use legal methods to reduce their tax burden. If his donations to the exchequer are lower or later due to his tax setup then that could be labelled hypocrisy.

P.S. I'm perfectly capable of using the Queen's English to distinguish between legal and illegal tax reduction methods

[Rollin]

Edinburger said:

simoid said:

It is nice that he's got himself a radio show for his squirrels. Bill Od(d)ie will be running scared. I wonder if Salmond pays 45% income tax on the radio salary, or if it goes into his company. Which of course he won't use for tax avoidance purposes.

An allegation of "tax avoidance"?

Remember simoid, tax avoidance is a perfectly legal method of using the tax regime to your own benefit by reducing the amount of tax payable. ISAs are one commonly used method of tax avoidance.

Tax avoidance is perfectly legal. Tax evasion on the other and, is not legal.

Luckily for Salmond, hypocrisy is perfectly legal too.

[Edinburger]

simoid said:

Edinburger said:

simoid said:

It is nice that he's got himself a radio show for his squirrels. Bill Od(d)ie will be running scared. I wonder if Salmond pays 45% income tax on the radio salary, or if it goes into his company. Which of course he won't use for tax avoidance purposes.

An allegation of "tax avoidance"?

Remember simoid, tax avoidance is a perfectly legal method of using the tax regime to your own benefit by reducing the amount of tax payable. ISAs are one commonly used method of tax avoidance.

Tax avoidance is perfectly legal. Tax evasion on the other and, is not legal.

Alex Salmond, however, is a great critic of individuals and companies who use legal methods to reduce their tax burden. If his donations to the exchequer are lower or later due to his tax setup then that could be labelled hypocrisy.

I'm not aware of him being a great critic of those who use legal methods to reduce their tax burden. Doesn't everyone do that? Anyone who uses an accountant or financial adviser is doing just that. Anyone who claims any tax relief available be it higher rate pension tax relief, charity donations, etc., anyone who has an offshore investment or an ISA is doing just that. I bet you do, simoid. I know I do.

[Gecko1978]

Edinburger said:

Topic of interest - Brexit 'would give Holyrood new powers'.

I don't want to discuss the claimed triggering of a second referendum, but does anyone know why those powers would automatically default back to Holyrood, especially as not all the powers were under the devolved parliament before?

its an opinion piece not a fact so its not clear they would though you might argue that holyrood might better run certain things locally so to speak. Talk of a constitutional crisis is well just that talk. Remember Holyrood was set up by the UK government and could be disbanded by the UK government should it need to (I think law would need to change now to achieve that).

So no a Brexit will not cause internal crisis but it could well mean more powers in the assemblies hands etc

[simoid]

Edinburger said:

I'm not aware of him being a great critic of those who use legal methods to reduce their tax burden. Doesn't everyone do that? Anyone who uses an accountant or financial adviser is doing just that. Anyone who claims any tax relief available be it higher rate pension tax relief, charity donations, etc., anyone who has an offshore investment or an ISA is doing just that. I bet you do, simoid. I know I do.

The SNP have always been great critics of tax avoiders. Here's one from a year ago:

Herald said:

The First Minister said "a whole political establishment" had negligently allowed tax avoidance to become routine, even though it robbed public services of essential funding.

She said people should be "unequivocal about how obscene and immoral and downright wrong" it was to dodge tax, however it was done.

"The first step is to have a zero tolerance approach to it and then to have a much more vigorous and effective tax authority that's going to clamp down on it and prosecute people, and get money back and make examples of people, so we send the right message to anyone thinking of doing it.

"It is awful, it is despicable, I can't actually think of words strong enough for it, and the sooner we start calling it for what it is, the sooner we might start to see it tackled and tackled effectively."

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13201727.Sturgeon_demands_zero_tolerance_on_obscene_and_despicable_tax_avoidance/

[Rollin]

Edinburger said:

simoid said:

Edinburger said:

simoid said:

It is nice that he's got himself a radio show for his squirrels. Bill Od(d)ie will be running scared. I wonder if Salmond pays 45% income tax on the radio salary, or if it goes into his company. Which of course he won't use for tax avoidance purposes.

An allegation of "tax avoidance"?

Remember simoid, tax avoidance is a perfectly legal method of using the tax regime to your own benefit by reducing the amount of tax payable. ISAs are one commonly used method of tax avoidance.

Tax avoidance is perfectly legal. Tax evasion on the other and, is not legal.

Alex Salmond, however, is a great critic of individuals and companies who use legal methods to reduce their tax burden. If his donations to the exchequer are lower or later due to his tax setup then that could be labelled hypocrisy.

I'm not aware of him being a great critic of those who use legal methods to reduce their tax burden. Doesn't everyone do that? Anyone who uses an accountant or financial adviser is doing just that. Anyone who claims any tax relief available be it higher rate pension tax relief, charity donations, etc., anyone who has an offshore investment or an ISA is doing just that. I bet you do, simoid. I know I do.

Salmond told Holyrood: “I think that we have reason for hope and demonstration that what we are introducing with the new responsibilities that we are getting will provide a template for a tax system in an independent Scotland that will secure and protect us against the sort of unacceptable, aggressive tax avoidance that is widespread in the UK tax system.”

[AC43]

Rollin said:

Edinburger said:

simoid said:

Edinburger said:

simoid said:

It is nice that he's got himself a radio show for his squirrels. Bill Od(d)ie will be running scared. I wonder if Salmond pays 45% income tax on the radio salary, or if it goes into his company. Which of course he won't use for tax avoidance purposes.

An allegation of "tax avoidance"?

Remember simoid, tax avoidance is a perfectly legal method of using the tax regime to your own benefit by reducing the amount of tax payable. ISAs are one commonly used method of tax avoidance.

Tax avoidance is perfectly legal. Tax evasion on the other and, is not legal.

Alex Salmond, however, is a great critic of individuals and companies who use legal methods to reduce their tax burden. If his donations to the exchequer are lower or later due to his tax setup then that could be labelled hypocrisy.

I'm not aware of him being a great critic of those who use legal methods to reduce their tax burden. Doesn't everyone do that? Anyone who uses an accountant or financial adviser is doing just that. Anyone who claims any tax relief available be it higher rate pension tax relief, charity donations, etc., anyone who has an offshore investment or an ISA is doing just that. I bet you do, simoid. I know I do.

Salmond told Holyrood: “I think that we have reason for hope and demonstration that what we are introducing with the new responsibilities that we are getting will provide a template for a tax system in an independent Scotland that will secure and protect us against the sort of unacceptable, aggressive tax avoidance that is widespread in the UK tax system.”

God they're so holier-than-though, aren't they?

[blinkythefish]

simoid said:

Edinburger said:

I'm not aware of him being a great critic of those who use legal methods to reduce their tax burden. Doesn't everyone do that? Anyone who uses an accountant or financial adviser is doing just that. Anyone who claims any tax relief available be it higher rate pension tax relief, charity donations, etc., anyone who has an offshore investment or an ISA is doing just that. I bet you do, simoid. I know I do.

The SNP have always been great critics of tax avoiders. Here's one from a year ago:

Herald said:

The First Minister said "a whole political establishment" had negligently allowed tax avoidance to become routine, even though it robbed public services of essential funding.

She said people should be "unequivocal about how obscene and immoral and downright wrong" it was to dodge tax, however it was done.

"The first step is to have a zero tolerance approach to it and then to have a much more vigorous and effective tax authority that's going to clamp down on it and prosecute people, and get money back and make examples of people, so we send the right message to anyone thinking of doing it.

"It is awful, it is despicable, I can't actually think of words strong enough for it, and the sooner we start calling it for what it is, the sooner we might start to see it tackled and tackled effectively."

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13201727.Sturgeon_demands_zero_tolerance_on_obscene_and_despicable_tax_avoidance/

http://www.snp.org/pb_what_is_the_snp_doing_to_tac...

"We believe that the wealthiest in society should not be able to avoid paying income tax on substantial parts of their earnings, whilst those on middle and low incomes work hard to pay their taxes in full. Tightening the rules in this area could generate at least £300m in extra revenue."

[simoid]

Important to note that Salmond strongly denies claims he's avoiding tax. Presumably he has given to the exchequer, what, 50% of his earnings after charitable donations?