Are we shocked?

George Osbourne, our Chancellor, is shocked, SHOCKED, by how the richest people in the country are dickering with their tax returns - why some of them are paying less than 10% of their income in taxes! SHOCK! Are you not shocked?

Now, I, personally, am not shocked. Nor is just about anyone else because this is common bloody knowledge. And I don't believe Osbourne was ignorant either. In fact, it's inexcusable if he is ignorant because he's the bloody Chancellor. He runs the economy and he is NOT aware of this? How does he write budgets being this ignorant?

Also note the clever misdirection - we're talking about tax relief, not tax havens – no comment offshore accounts or setting yourself up as a company either. Therefore aiming at just one small segment of tax avoidance - then he can tweak that and call it job done, never mind the millionaires who say they live in Guernsey, or the celebrities who list themselves as a company so they get to pay corporation tax.

Don’t get me wrong, I hate the charity tax relief section. Just because you give to charity doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be taxes – especially since our definition of “charity” can be awfully lax (especially since churches count). I don’t want our NHS or benefit system underfunded because rich folks would rather pay for the cherubs to be re-gilded at the opera house. But, in terms of the many ways rich folk wiggle out of paying tax, I don’t think this is up there compared to the tax havens and incorporating self

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