If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.
Options
knowingly buying stolen property is illegal right?
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
so would the crown be breaking the law by doing this:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article3431659.ece
not that i like tax avoidance havens but this is overstepping the mark a bit, paying a fraudster
so i can't buy a song from a russian website for like 2p, but HMRC can buy bank information, respecting the rule of law is a basic property of a democracy
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article3431659.ece
not that i like tax avoidance havens but this is overstepping the mark a bit, paying a fraudster
HMRC confirmed that it paid for a list of British account holders stolen by a former employee from a bank in the tax haven. Reports said the Revenue had paid £100,000 for the list, which is believed to contain around 100 names and could yield as much as £100 million in unpaid taxes.
Lawyers said that HMRC was entitled to use the information regardless of how it obtained it. The taxman regularly pays whistleblowers for tip-offs that lead to the collection of tax, they said, and the fact that the information may have been obtained unlawfully is not a consideration.
The Taxes Management Act, 1970, originally stated that a court hearing a tax evasion case could consider evidence obtained “by any lawful means”. However, in 2004, the word “lawful” was dropped from the legislation.
so i can't buy a song from a russian website for like 2p, but HMRC can buy bank information, respecting the rule of law is a basic property of a democracy
0
Comments
As you say its clearly doing something which if an individual did would be illegal, but then the government is above quite a lot of laws.
However, whilst I'm not an expert on tax law, I thought the reason why these things are called tax havens was because it was perfectly legal to use them to minimise your tax bill.
this is case most likely, that they'll use it to say "we'll do a tax investigation on you" on specific companies/individuals to up the tax take, because most people would rather avoid detailed investigation, becuase of all the 'grey' areas
________________
Filing back taxes
The investigation and criminal prosecution should be done according to the law but I have no problem with HMRC or the police using information they obtained from dubious sources.
If these people don't like it, they can always fuck off to Liechtenstein. Revoke their passport and ban them from ever returning to the UK. And all their fat cat chums can piss off too: if they love the Cayman Islands that much, they can go live there permanently.
You can't steal intellectual property, by the way, and a list of names is intellectual property. The only thing that is stolen is the sheet of paper with the names listed on.
It certainly feels right to agree with this, but what you are basically saying is the ends justify the means. And to be frank I dont trust the government enough to give them enough power to break the law.
There should be safeguards and procedures in place, but paying for information should not make that information inadmissible.