Paradise Papers
 

So I thought i’d put it out there, especially as Lewis Hamilton is implicated, the topic is now car related!

The question I have been asking myself is whether i’d do the same? If I carried a huge personal wealth, would I be open to a creative, legal way of keeping as much of it as I could.

At first, Yes, I think I would.

But then I think to have so much wealth I would have to be great at whatever it is I do and greatness is not just measured in coin but also the way you conduct yourself.

Maybe i’ll stay as I am for a while! Although it would be nice to have a bit more disposable income to help pay garages to find an elusive engine rattle in my 8 year old S8!

Provided it's legal I see no problem with it. I think that most people in a similar situation would do what they can to protect their wealth, I know I do what I can to avoid paying more tax than I need to including owning a V8 pre 2001 tax change!

What Lewis has done sounds a little risky from what I've seen, the personal use side might catch him out.

This leak is just one example of how selfish we've become as a society over the last thirty years, post-Thatcher. It's rare these days - almost unheard of - for people to publicly talk about the value of supporting others or of society in general.

So we get stuff like this, where the default behaviour of individuals and organisations in our society is self-centred greed and avoiding paying one's fair share for the effective functioning and improvement of society. Not good, and not sustainable in the long run.

I thought the exact same thing, if you an afford a private jet do you really need to rip off the VAT and if you do need to maybe you can't actually afford the jet in the first place. But then it won't have been him personally would it, the legal team and accountants would have sorted all that out. But then as I was reminded by HMRC my TAX is my responsibility no matter who made the mistakes.
I was an absolute wreck over 8.5k and they chased me for it, hard, to the point my business was almost folded as I just couldn't pay it. I just couldn't work out then why they were so willing to bankrupt my little business when Google, Amazon, Starbucks, Vision Express, Mcdonalds and the likes are ok not to pay theirs.

Shame really when there is people that can't even get clean drinking water and then we have the rich clinging on to as much of their wealth as possible. The money is there it's just being held on to by people that will never spend it.

I'm no expert but even I would know something wasn't quite right if I had money going through the Cayman Islands or similar. You know you're hiding something. So if you take the risk then you might get stung eh?

Could be some differing opinions on this one I reckon.

Though I'm not sure business jets are a good example as almost all aircraft are leased and people/companies just pay for use.

No idea if LH's jet for example is hired out for other people or retained for his personal use only, but if he uses it for private-only (non-business) activities then there's presumably a formula to follow re payments for use, taxes, etc. and his advisers should be dealing with that.

Does anyone even know where he's domiciled, don't think he's UK-based any more?

Top comment and well said. My thoughts exactly.

Just to add, I think the famous people outed in this latest leak (Hamilton, Bono et al.) have been thrown to the wolves by the press, just like Jimmy Carr was a few years back. Where as the likes of Apple sitting on $252 billion in untaxed offshore cash by exploiting Jersey's tax system is the biggest story here.... Corporation Tax Avoidance!! It's sad big global corporations don't pay their equal share to society. It may be fully legal, but where's the ethics? Say what you want about the EU, they are focused on the citizen rather than big business and are trying to implement a Europe wide corporation tax and putting an end to all the double Irish Dutch sandwich loopholes.

I think he's in Monaco well was anyway.

Yup, lives in the same building as Nico Rosberg believe it or not.

If you are an international sportsman you have income from various avenue streams and have to balance tax accordingly, he will have a team that will be in charge of where the money goes and it will be a legal process, however, for people like us it doesn't make sense. Compared to normal people L/H must haemorrhage money in taxes across various countries.

Not saying he is living a hard life but in his shoes I think we would all do the same. I don't begrudge him for it.

I know I get stung on tax and vat and pay my bills accordingly, doesn't mean I agree with HMRC as they screw people and small companies like myself over left, right and centre while the big ones get away with it. No way of changing it really so fair play if individuals can save their money.

As for the comments about getting clean water. All of us could be more charitable and help the poor more. Who needs more than one car? several of us have more than one car, what about selling a car and donating that money to a clean water charity?

Thought as much

I dont think anyone minds tax minimisation but many of these schemes, whilst "legal", are intended to let people escape tax altogether. e.g. getting paid into offshore trusts which allow you as an "adviser" or "consultant" to say how that untaxed trust money is to be spent - which turns out to be, funny enough, on their house, car, boat, plane and day to day living expenses :rolleyes: .

How many of us work for employers that use Salary Sacrifice? Perfectly legal and very common practice, that effectively reduces the amount of tax/NI we pay. If it's available and legal it will be done!
The morals of this however is a debate sure to go on until I can afford my own private island as a tax haven.