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UK Pursues Tax Evaders Using Stolen Bank Details
Andrew Smith writes "The UK taxman (HM Revenue & Customs) is reportedly using a stolen list of bank details to pursue wealthy individuals with off-shore accounts. The list was stolen by an employee of HSBC, and gave details of the bank's customers with money in Swiss accounts. The bank employee fled to France, and the authorities there passed the details on to the UK tax collection agency."
Sorry, but I'll never view someone trying to keep their hard earned money as "wrong", just like I'd never say it's wrong for a person to physically defend themselves from an attacker.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
Considering government bloat is the fastest way to hemorrhage money I agree. In Canada it take 4 people to pay for the job of 1 civil servant. It's probably around 6:1 in the US, government makes no money, it creates no money, all it does it take and spend another persons.
Om, nomnomnom...
Holy shit, you're a nutjob.
No, it's about justice. Everyone has the right to the money they earn, regardless of if they earn $1 a year or $1 billion a year. Ethics - you should look it up.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
No, I pay taxes to maintain roads, public schools, etc. The issue is the things of "Oh, Bill Gates makes more money, so we'll take some of his and give it to AC so that AC can buy the things he wants without working to earn the money for them" programs / taxes.
I have never seen anyone say the above, and actually practice what they preach.
That's because you mix two separate issues (necessary taxes / programs vs unnecessary welfare state taxes / programs to redistribute wealth from those who earned it to those who didn't) to create a tautology where if someone exists, they're "using something they didn't pay for".
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
Ah, I see. Necessary taxes and programs are those that benefit you directly. Unnecessary welfare taxes and programs are those that you do not benefit from. Nice.
No, if you had an IQ over 5, you'd notice that the necessary programs are ones that are best provided by government (such as roads, because it's too much of a hassle to have priviately owned roads) and ones that everyone equally has access to. Unnecessary ones are ones that serve no purpose but to take money from person A's wallet and put it in person B's wallet. However, you're a greedy bastard who thinks that you should be able to steal all you want from people just because they worked harder and have more money than you.
I hope you die from some really rare and painful disease after your medical coverage is terminated because it hit its lifetime maximum.
Already got said horrible disease. I was born with it and there's no cure. However, unlike you, I understand that just because my life sucks it doesn't give me the right to steal money from other people to get treatment.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
Your snotty dismissal ignores the fact that government is not the only means for building roads or plumbing. It does not follow that because some product or service is provided through the threat of violence today, that it can't be done otherwise.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
And you're obviously from Europe. In the US, we don't have your 60%+ tax rates and we actually *gasp!* pay for the things that benefit us ourselves. Want to sue your company? Why yes, you do have to pay the lawyer because you're the one benefiting from the lawsuit (if it goes your way). Want someone to pick up the trash instead of taking it to the dump yourself? Why yes, you DO have to pay for it!
You're just displaying the typical collectivist mistake of not realizing that regardless of if you pay for it out of your pockets or just pay higher taxes for it, you're still fucking paying for it either way. I bet you also believe in the myth of "free" education or "free" health care. Just because they forcefully take it from your paycheck instead of handing you a bill doesn't mean that you're not paying for it.
What these guys are doing is stealing from the government.
No, they're not. If they opened up government bank accounts and took money, then yes, they would be stealing from the government. That's not what they're doing. Since the government collects taxes by forcefully taking money from citizens (aka stealing), by refusing to let them take your money, you're not stealing anything, but defending your property from thieves. Somehow you have this disconnect in your brain where you think just because an asshole politician with armed thugs (military and police) backing him says he has a right to your money that it actually gives him a right. The law and justice are completely different things.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
You are retarded
-then why do you bother replying?
Income tax is the only tax system that provides for *fairness*
- who said it's supposed to be fair? Secondly, if you read my comment with a little more than your ass, you would have noticed that I did mention a fact, fact that federal gov't spending used to be based on taxes of certain items and food and some basic necessities do not need to be included into those items.
Alcohol, any sort of 'luxury' items, tariffs on imports etc., should be enough. More importantly, you completely missed the point of having sales taxes used as a feedback mechanism controlling the size of gov't by controlling the amount of money it is given to spend.
Also it is quite possible to have a system, where people under certain income avoid paying any taxes at all, even sales taxes by filing their income statements.
And yes, maybe the idea of income tax is foreign to you because in USSR your income was taxed 90-95% before you even got your wages.
- it's not foreign, I have spent enough time in other countries paying income taxes, but now I found a place in the world where those are no longer applicable.
So you may call me retarded, but it does not make your argument any stronger.
You can't handle the truth.
Roads are fine, why do we need electrical subsidies? I don't care if oil prices go up. Police are fine too. That's half of your list right there, get rid of them and then tell me what my taxes are. If it's still 27.27% then you need to keep cutting. If I get a $1000 raise the government will take 44.5% of it and charge my employer an additional 7.65%. The "services" I receive from the federal government (tax rate: 22.08%) are not worth what I am paying for them. Since my state pays more in federal taxes than we get back, we could cut taxes simply by banning the federal government from giving money to the states. They use that power to control state laws anyway. Sorry, New Mexico and Mississippi residents, your taxes will increase by at least your federal tax rate (so you'll be paying it twice). Sure, the federal government would still need money, but at least we would know exactly how much.
The right to protest the State is more sacred than the State.
And what went completely over your Marxist head is the fact that people are forced to pay taxes for things that they do not want / benefit from - then there's the added injustice of the more successful you are, the smaller portion of your income you're allowed to keep.
With the tax system, a better analogy is this: You stay at a hotel that's $100 a night. The hotel decides that you have a nice car, so they increase your rate by 30% and use that money to lower everyone else's bill. Then when you refuse to pay the unjust bill, they beat you and lock you in a cell for X years, then forcefully take the money anyways.
Honestly, what slashdot has devolved to makes me have no hope for the future. It used to be a place of intelligent discussion, now it's simply a place for arrogant marxists to get together and support each others delusions that they have a right to someone else's money and that it's wrong to work hard and succeed in life, and if anyone comes along and dares to point out the injustice of forcing one person to pay another persons bills, they get modded troll for daring to THINK instead of just blindly following the delusions of a mad man.
You can mod people down and spout marxist ideology all you want, but it doesn't change that you don't have a right to someone else's money. That's also why you don't practice what you preach and you refuse to spread your wealth to others who have less - you just want to be on the receiving end because you're jealous of those who worked harder and make more (cause and effect people!). Instead of wanting to encourage people to work hard, improve their lives, and improve society, you want laws passed to punish innovation, punish hard work, and support those who are lazy and have nothing of value to contribute to the world.
Don't worry - I know none of you will even actually consider a damn word I wrote - your blind ideology prevents you from considering that you might be wrong and as such, you refuse to even look at other points of view. But, despite the fact that I get so much hate for it, I'll never stop trying to get people to look at the injustice of collectivism and make the world a better place. So go ahead, mod me down some more, call me greedy for saying that people should get to keep what they earn instead of stealing from others, but it won't affect me. One day, one of you might get that big chance and have a great career and realize that when you're on the receiving end of legalized rape that it's not cool. Oh, and before you scream about how I'm "rich", hardly - I grew up poor, worked my ass off, and now I make a whopping $30k a year (though I just started grad school, so hopefully after I graduate in a couple of years, I'll be making more than that). It's utterly sociopathic to think that someone should be punished for working hard and being successful.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
> if your answer requires me to pay a fee whenever I'm traveling at that road, making me a de facto prisoner in my own home, it's not acceptable.
The status quo requires you to pay for the road whether you're using it or not, and you'll be made a prisoner if you refuse to pay. Why do you find that more acceptable than paying for what you use?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
I despise Fox News and, despite your childish insults, am well aware that I am NOT better off under the Democrats tax policies of "tax anyone who works to death to fund an ever increasing number of people on welfare".
Lets say though that you're right - we steal all of Bill's money and give it to people like you and me and I benefit from it. Just because you benefit from something doesn't make it right. THAT is what you're not getting. You think "Hey, more money in my pocket - that's always good!" and ignore the fact that it's not fair for some people to get to keep 90% of their income while others are only allowed to keep 60%.
but they recognise as I do that redistributive taxation is good
Oh, I'm sure, like most Democrats, they do support it - as long as they're not the ones paying for it. It's quite common for people who support "redistributing the wealth" to support taking away OTHER people's money but they refuse to hand over their own. Even your messiah Obama moved his millions into tax shelters before going into office and supporting increased taxes.
the richest are not currently taxed enough.
They pay WAY more than can even possibly be justified. 10% of the population pays 71% of the taxes. How the FUCK do you try to justify that? Well, wait, I know how you justify it - you claim that they're evil demons for being successful and as such, they must be forced to return their evil money to make penance for the crime of working hard and being successful. What I meant by "how the fuck do you try to justify that" was, rationally, how does one try to provide a logical reason for why 10% should pay 71% of the taxes. Then there's the fact that 50% of the population pays 97% of all taxes - so no, it's not just "the evil rich", it's half of the country gets a free ride on the backs of everyone else. That is utter bullshit and you only support those policies because you hope to one day be one of the freeloaders.