Gary Barlow and his OBE...

[max_tranmere]

A Judge has found that popstar Gary Barlow tried to save millions of pounds by putting money into a tax avoidance scheme and he's now been told he'll have to pay back millions to the Treasury. Margaret Hodge, the Labour chair of the Public Accounts Committee, has said Barlow "might want to show a bit of contrition by giving back his OBE".

What I find interesting is that the previous Labour government Knighted, and that is a bigger honour than an OBE, the likes of Mick Jagger and Philip Green, they are both bigger tax dodgers than Gary Barlow, and no one says anything about them. I don't know how long Green has been avoiding paying tax here but it's been a while. Mick Jagger has been a tax dodger for over 45 years.

Those two get knighted, nothing is said about their tax avoidance. Gary Barlow is outed as a tax dodger and some are calling for him to hand back his OBE. Very inconsistent. People's views please.

[cockneygeezer2009]

Well MPs can hardly complain when they don't even have their own house in order. Typical hypocrites. Didn't one just resign recently for yet another expenses scandal?

[Arginald Valleywater]

My female colleagues think he is lovely so it is OK to buttfuck the man in the street who has PAYE deducted at source. He is so wet a he makes Cliff Richard look like Keith Richards.

[max_tranmere]

I do find it odd they're singling him out, just like I found it odd they singled out Jim Carr a while ago. There are so many music stars and businessmen doing this and no one says anything.

[Essex Lad]

As far as I'm concerned the less tax anyone pays the better. Companies ? that's a different matter. But everyone should, if possible, do their best to pay as little tax as possible...

[max_tranmere]

If people did that there would be less services. The NHS, schools, and everything else would suffer even more.

[Essex Lad]

That's the usual reply but it would also mean less money to fight wars we have no business getting involved in; propping up dictatorships and giving millions in bribes (I mean foreign aid).

[max_tranmere]

They would probably be just as keen to fight foreign wars and give money to people abroad, and just cut services at home. The more money Government's receive the more likely it is they'll not cut back on services here at home.

[Essex Lad]

What on earth is moral about paying tax? A greedy, slovenly state forces you to hand over roughly half your money every year, by threatening to send you to prison if you don?t.

Then it shovels that money carelessly down a huge hole. The Government is bad at almost everything it does. If you sent it out to buy you a loaf of bread, it would come back a week later with stale cake, and pretend it had lost the change.

People who can afford to do so avoid the wretched ?services? the state arranges in return for this legalised theft. What are these? Schools that teach sexual licence but not times tables or proper reading; police who are never there when you want them; hospitals plagued with inexcusable dirt and neglect; a welfare system that punishes thrift and encourages sloth.

Meanwhile, the real essentials ? the absolute vital duties of any government ? are neglected or destroyed. Our borders are abandoned, our roads potholed, our Navy sunk, our Army soon to be small enough to fit into Wembley Stadium. As for criminal justice, where do I begin?

As it happens, I pay my taxes as fully as possible. I don?t qualify for, and so don?t use, the obvious get-outs. But am I guilty if I take out an ISA (a form of tax avoidance) or set a charitable donation against tax? Certainly not. And if I were offered the chance to pay much less tax, simply and legally, I would take it.

The point was beautifully stated long ago by an American judge with the wonderful name of Learned Hand, who ruled: "Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the Treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one?s taxes .  .  . nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands."

[max_tranmere]

I agree vast amounts of money is wasted and the government is incompetent. I used to be a Civil Servant just a stone's throw from Parliament Square, working for a large government department for many years, and the wastage there is incredible. It is shocking really. If there was no tax paid it wouldn't just be all the wastage, the foreign wars, and the foreign aid that would end - it would be everything. There would be no NHS at all, no Poilce, no schools, no government. We would have a state of complete anarchy and many people would starve to death.