Former Tory Chancellor ‘underpaid’ millions in tax. Isn’t that a crime?
It looks like tax evasion to This Writer – and that would indeed be a crime.
Have a look at the video clip by A Different Bias, to get familiar with the story:
Phil Moorhouse gives some interesting information, but I think he’s mistaken on a couple of points.
Firstly, tax avoidance isn’t a crime; it’s the legal rearranging of a person’s financial affairs in order to pay as little tax as possible.
In this case, former Chancellor and stable-heater Nadhim Zahawi appears to have used Gibraltar-registered family trust Balshore Investments to hold shares in the polling firm YouGov.
That would be perfectly acceptable legally – it’s tax avoidance. I should make clear that Zahawi himself has claimed that he does not have, and never has had, an interest in Balshore Investments and he is not a beneficiary.
The stake in YouGov, worth more than £20 million, was sold by 2018, with the proceeds transferred to an unknown recipient.
Think tank Tax Policy Associates has estimated that this should have incurred capital gains tax of about £3.7 million.
It seems Zahawi had not paid it. That would be tax evasion, which is a crime – if, indeed, he had had an interest in Balshore Investments and had been a beneficiary.
But now it seems he has agreed to pay the money to HM Revenue and Customs. Why would he do that if he didn’t owe it?
The maximum penalty for tax evasion in the UK is seven years in prison or an unlimited fine.
Zahawi has not been fined. For that to happen, a court trial would have to have taken place. He has merely (we’re told) agreed to pay the money.
And this, as Phil said in the clip, is odd. If anybody in the general population had committed a benefit-related crime, they would have faced severe penalties.
So, if he did commit tax evasion, one would have to wonder how this former Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer has managed to get away with it.
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Nothing will be done…This tory criminal Cartel posing as the government have proven time and time again that they are above the law.
Reason why Zahawi wasn’t fined for tax evasion is because firstly he is another corrupt fascist tory and secondly tax laws do not apply to fascist tories. Only impoverished women and men are subject to punishment for supposedly committing ‘benefit fraud’ which is pennies compared to the huge sums wealthy fascist tories save by not being subjected to the same laws!
One law for us peasants and a different one for the rotten corrupt fascist tories!
If you study the way his spokesman answered questions – by ignoring them – it’s all too clear that something important is being kept secret.
https://thegreatcritique.wordpress.com/2023/01/16/nadim-zahawi-dodging-more-tax-than-lester-piggot/
I also see he is wearing one of those awful union jack/Ukrainian flag badges.
As if he really cares about the people of the Ukraine.
I worked for HMRC for many years and it’s very uncommon for prosecutions to go ahead. In 99% of cases people will make agreements to repay the money in which case (if they don’t repay the money) it is a Civil matter ie debt collection. It is vanishingly rare for fraud to take an interest in any case that us normal people would perceive as fraud. In the rare instances that they do it must not only be obvious that a crime has been committed but the evidence to obtain conviction must already be available and utterly overwhelming. The reason for the attitude is that HMRC is enormously underfunded. For example your average medium sized town’s DWP Fraud Dept is the same size as Scotland’s Tax Fraud Dept. As you will no doubt be aware DWP will investigate frauds from £50 up to a few thousand and HMRC won’t look at a case under £5000. You can decide for yourself why the resource is put into collecting and prosecuting over tiny amounts over resourcing collection and prosecution of literally tens of millions of pounds a year. NB this isn’t a problem JUST of the Tories, it was the same when Labour were in power..