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The Isle of Man is not in the UK

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Re: The Isle of Man is not in the UK

#91
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The final bill came to about fifty quid, I'm thinking you weren't really who they wanted to target anyway.

Sometimes it feels like the taxman is very keen on targeting Joe Ordinary who saved fifty quid, and completely ignoring the billionaires who evaded tens of millions in taxes.

At a guess this might not be far from the truth. For sub a few hundred pound almost no one would bother fighting it. Above a few hundred thousand almost everyone will. At best they'd have to expend a lot of time and money to get a fraction of the original amount back.

Re: The Isle of Man is not in the UK

#92
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

£30.000 is already too high considering that the taxpayer has earned every penny and doesn't owe anything to anyone

The concept of “owing” money to people comes in part from the consequences if they are not paid, including use of force. The concept of a country is in large part due to the area in which force can be applied to ensure people pay taxes, in return for services including security.

It's also worth pointing out that the same sets of rules backed by use of force are integral to ensuring that companies and property exist, contracts get fulfilled and so people get paid the salary in the first place and get to keep the possessions they buy with it.

Re: The Isle of Man is not in the UK

#93
post #90
post #32

UK and tax havens have a long history. It is pretty sad and tells a lot about the quality of information in UK that most British people do not know about ATAD: Anti Tax Avoidance Directive, a EU attempt to crack down on tax havens, which will come in effect on 1st of Jan 2020. Thanks to Brexit, UK will secure its tax havens, to the benefit of very few and to the detriment of many... See https://www.taxjustice.net/201…

Are you sure it's not to the detriment of very few? How many UK citizens are able to take advantage of said tax havens? Edit: I misunderstood

It is to detriment of all the people that miss out on those tax dollars that should be paid.

Re: The Isle of Man is not in the UK

#94
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After living in the UK for a year and encountering this tax system firsthand, I'm convinced that one of the main reasons for Brexit is that rich people in England are worried that EU tax harmonization could one day take away their sweet loopholes and convenient neighborhood tax havens. I've personally benefitted from the system as a "resident non-domiciled" foreign citizen. But on the whole it's not fair to British t…

> I'm convinced that one of the main reasons for Brexit is that rich people in England are worried that EU tax harmonization it's coming January 2020, the UK is terrified of it as they own overseas tax havens all over the world. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/anti-tax-avoidan...

That's an interesting bit of information to illuminate Boris Johnson's insistence that Britain must exit by 31 Oct 2019. "I would rather be dead in a ditch than seek an extension," he said.

Re: The Isle of Man is not in the UK

#95

Isle of Man has zero percent corporate tax on (most) money earned outside the Isle of Man, which includes money earned in the UK. If you're a non-resident citizen of the UK, you can deposit your dividends from your Isle of Man company in your UK bank account, tax free. For the time being, IOM companies have GB VAT numbers, and a banking system that integrates seamlessly with the UK one, as well as a postal system (qu…

I lived for four years in the IoM, had an amazing time (until Bushy's closed anyway). But in the process, I opened an IoM bank account to pay my salary into. I carried on using this account for years afterwards (it was with the IoM branch of a UK bank). I benefited from not paying any tax on the interest on my savings account, because tax haven. Not a huge perk, but a nice one anyway. And then, in the wake of the tax…

> Getting super smart about taxes, especially by using loopholes and tax havens, can be counter-productive. Unexpected tax demands are not fun.

Sure. However, getting slightly smart about it, and not -- for example -- paying tax in a country you are demonstrably not living in, is probably a good idea.

Re: The Isle of Man is not in the UK

#96

"And speaking of finance, the island has no capital gains tax, stamp duty or inheritance tax, making it an enticing prospect for many." This one sentence sums up why the Isle of Man exists the way it does. What a puff piece. Britain/UK/whatever are full of these little places to hide your money. That's all this is. Yet another crowny thing that allows the rich to avoid paying their due in an undemocratic society.

This is an incredible documentary about British tax havens and the influence of the City of London in the running of UK government & foreign policy https://youtu.be/np_ylvc8Zj8

I agree, this is well worth watching.

Re: The Isle of Man is not in the UK

#98

> “Independence is a strong part of the character of the people of the island. We’re not part of the UK, or the British Isles – we’re Manx,” said Phil Gawne, a former politician on the island... Hmm. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Isles > The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic off the north-western coast of continental Europe that consist of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Is…

Yeah, that person is just wrong. Interesting that they identify that way though. I have friends in Jersey, which holds the same status as the Isle of Mann, and they're very insistent on not being part of the UK, but that they are British (as well as Jersey native). They like being independent but being strongly connected to the UK.

Re: The Isle of Man is not in the UK

#99

And of course there's "Big Clive" who is probably familiar to many of the people here. He lives on the Isle of Man and frequently talks about it. (He does a "hands channel" on YouTube taking apart electrical devices and other gadgets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMv2KyuZEp4 )

Big Clive and his house full of disassembled and broken things :)

Tremendous channel though and thoroughly educational.

Re: The Isle of Man is not in the UK

#100
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The final bill came to about fifty quid, I'm thinking you weren't really who they wanted to target anyway.

Sometimes it feels like the taxman is very keen on targeting Joe Ordinary who saved fifty quid, and completely ignoring the billionaires who evaded tens of millions in taxes.

Of course, who do you think pays the taxman? Who writes the laws or has power, influence, and money to shape them?

It's not an accident, it's by design.

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