JK Rowling does this tooâŚit would be game changer.
Personally I disagree. I dunno about UK but here in the US there are plenty of crackpots who refuse to pay their taxes because theyâve thought up a legal theory that exempts them. The courts always seem to disagree. Theyâve kind of spoiled the whole tax-protest game so that, even if your cause is righteous, you seem to be using an excuse to just not pay your share.
Particularly celebrities who, I assume, are fairly well-paid. It really just looks like theyâre being greedy. I very much agree with their cause; I only wish they had a different way of protesting. Throw a brick or something.
Yeah, no oneâs going to jail. I expect concessions or gestures will be made but no one except Emma and hubby and perhaps at a stretch a token scapegoat banker will do any time (with rewards to look forward to after for taking one for the team).
Itâs a bold move and it shines a brighter light on an area of corruption than us gnats could ever achieve without first becoming a national treasure, but titans donât fall or change their ways so easily.
Little did Mrs Thompson know, but HSBC was also doing a tax strike because of HMRC not going after Starbucks! Why arenât we praising HSBC?
Really, this is stupid. The point of a boycott is that you are forgoing something you want for some higher end. There is thus an element of sacrifice and that makes the protest have meaning. A âboycottâ that wholly benefits oneself, whose price is paid for by others - thatâs no boycott, itâs indistinguishable from shallow opportunism.
There are other ways to wage this wage war. Emma and Wisey should get wise and look for ways to hide their stash too. They were beaten at the game.
âThe courts always seem to disagree.â I think the whole point is that DOESNâT happen here in the UK. If it did then thereâd be nothing to protest against. The HSBC tax evaders havenât been taken to court or the tax reclaimed. If theyâre taken to court then so should the tax evaders theyâre protesting against. I thought that was the whole point of this âprotestâ?
Wise told the Evening Standard. â⌠I am a profound fucking socialistâŚ"
Nope, you havenât earned that title if you hold back on your fair contribution. True lefties pay their tax whilst knowing fully well that a certain percentage of state finances are lost due to tax cheats, benefit cheats, corruption etc etc.
Refusing to pay any taxes and announcing it in the Guardian is not tax avoidance or evasion - itâs civil disobedience in kind in protest of the unbalanced application of the law. Thereâs no way that they will be better off due to this action. The point is not that they donât want to pay those taxes, itâs that theyâre tired of tax evasion by the rich being winked at while low income benefit fraud is given a much higher priority. They may go to prison, but this would increase the pressure to do the same for actual tax cheats.
So theyâre going to protest people not paying tax, by not paying taxâŚ
Whilst i agree that tax evasion/avoidance by the wealthy is one of the greatest problems this country faces, this seems like a profoundly stupid method to protest this. Far too easy for anyone else to twist it into âsee, they donât pay tax either, so why should we?â 
Well obviously SOMEONE is going to jail, they canât just let these protestors get away with spitting in the face of the establishment!
The point of course is that if they are taken to court it will set a legal precedent and will implicitly mean that others will also have to be taken to court. At the moment in the UK non of the high profile tax evaders have faced a single day in court.
If on the other hand Thompson and Wise are not taken to court in spite of announcing to the national press that they have broken the law, then that is also a pretty big statement from the powers that be in regard to their respect for the rule of law.
At least Thompson and Wise are drawing public attention to what theyâre doing in what could be an act of civil disobedience in the model of Thoreau who did go to jail (albeit for a very short time) for refusing to pay taxes.
But, yeah, I agree that at the very least this looks self-serving. One thing I wish theyâd do is put aside the amount they would be paying in taxes and not use it for their own benefitâessentially lock it up and say, âYou can have it when justice is done.â I feel like thatâs only part of what they could do to draw attention to the problem, though.
I feel like a lot of the commenters in this thread donât quite get how incredibly media friendly and popular Emma Thompson is. Jailing her and refusing to prosecute a banker (who are widely reviled even if the government still believes they are untouchable âwealth creatorsâ) would be political suicide this close to a general election.
Given that successive UK governments have gone out of their way to minimise the public voice and give disproportionate influence to the wealthy, this is exactly the kind of protest that the government will listen to. In the mean time, anyone with any kind of credit arrangement with HSBC should also consider defaulting on it until somebody, somewhere prosecutes these assholes. In the 21st century, economic pressure is the only way to get results, whether youâre a lobbyist, a 1%er or one of the 7 billion people who donât fall into either or both of this categories.
The government isnât the one who decides who gets prosecuted. That is decided by the the Crown Prosecution Service. I really donât want to live in a world where we get politically motivated prosecutions just before elections.
More people would be aware of this if Emma Watson were taking up the tax protest. It probably wouldnât work out though, as she is dating an individual who is living on state benefit.
The CPS is highly selective in who it prosecutes. For them, people like tax evaders and transphobes just dont seem like they are worth dealing with.
I think the whole point is that DOESNâT happen here in the UK.
It may not happen often enough but that is nonsense - Celebrity Tax Avoiders
Thereâs no need for a legal precedent that not paying tax is illegal. It is - sometimes. The situation is that rich tax evaders have very good lawyers, and very good tax advisers that can identify loopholes in the law and play the system to achieve good effects. The political and economic power of both the people offering advice and their clients makes legislative action to close loopholes impossible.
What would it mean for these tax strikers to get purposefully arrested? Not much, if they donât use the loopholes that exist. This is about as dumb and as immoral (though obviously to a lesser degree) as murdering a guy in broad daylight to protest police shootings. You simply invalidate your message - anyone who didnât see tax evasion as an issue will just see a hypocrite get their just desserts, and anyone who does think it is a problem isnât going to ask for clemency for people who tax dodge âfor the right reasonsâ. If Thompson wants to get arrested to send a message, then go smash up a HSBC office or something.
And what if they arenât taken to court anytime soon?
Whatâs nonsense? Your link doesnât contradict what I said. confused
