From today’s Guardian:
The Taxpayers’ Alliance, a campaign group that calls for tax and spending cuts and claims to represent the interests of taxpayers, has admitted one of its directors does not pay British tax.
The Guardian has learned that Alexander Heath, a director of the increasingly influential free market, rightwing lobby group, lives in a farmhouse in the Loire and has not paid British tax for years…
“The least we can expect for an organisation that purports to represent the interests of British taxpayers is that it is run by people that pay British tax,” said Jon Cruddas MP.
You can read the full story here.
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9 Comments
He’ll just say `I’m doing my bit for Britain` of course if it was an organisation that wanted tax to go up he would say `how can he say that when he lives in France?`
The TPA are not tories, I know some of them well. They are too right wing for Tories; so this is just smearing!
hey what do you think of this?
http://cityunslicker.blogspot.com/2009/10/lib-dems-had-worst-uk-political.html
Talk about the most overblown headline – they’re insinuating that he is a tax dodger, then explaining in the article that he lives in the tax haven of, eh, France. Does the Guardian believe that no British group should have directors who live overseas? A ridiculous smear story.
Diddums. Poor tax campaigners cant see any issue with someone who doesnt pay tax in the UK campaigning on taxes in the UK. “Smear” stories eh? Diddums.
That would be from a report in the Guardian which made group profits in excess of £300 million last year and paid corporation tax of £0.00. Zero. Zilch. Nada.
£300m in 2008 came from the sale of an asset (a stake in autotrader that was sold). GNM made a pre tax loss of £89m this year http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/31/guardian-media-group-pre-tax-loss
Actually, there is another way of looking at this. If he is not paying UK tax, then he cannot be accused of benefiting from that for which he is campaigning.
That is a far more honest position than somebody campaigning to lower their own taxes, or campaigning to tax more to pay for public services they use.
Hmm, so maybe we should disqualify UK residents from standing and voting in UK elections, and let the disinterested French pick our government for us?
Tom: following your logic though, wouldn’t the honest position for him to be a director of the Non-Taxpayers’ Alliance?