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Taxing words from Cameron?

Tom Baldwin, South West Socialist Party

According to a report by the PCS civil service union, £120 billion of tax goes unpaid every year. This money, mostly avoided and evaded by the super-rich, could virtually wipe out the deficit.

Campaigners for tax justice rightly point out that the rich shouldn't be cheating the taxman while the rest of us suffer huge attacks on our living standards.

Now it seems they have found an unlikely ally in David Cameron. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos he attacked tax-avoiding companies, telling them to "wake up and smell the coffee".

Does he now believe the rich should be paying for their own crisis? What's behind this miraculous conversion? Or is he just upset that big business seems ungrateful for all the handouts?

Last year his government cut corporation tax by 3%,and the top rate of income tax by 5% in a budget described by Chancellor Osborne as "unashamedly pro-business".

Accountancy firm PwC reported that the corporation tax bill for Britain's biggest companies tumbled by 18% last year, despite a rise in profits.

Look both ways

Cameron went on to add "we will cut our tax rates and be competitive but in return we do ask that people pay their fair share."

The real test of Cameron's sincerity is whether his words are matched by actions.

Staff numbers at HMRC - the government's tax department - have been cut in half since 2005 with more cuts planned, while HMRC bosses have a cosy relationship with big business.

Why would the Tories challenge tax avoidance when it's been so good to them? Numerous Tory donors have 'questionable' tax arrangements.

For example Lycamobile, their top corporate donor last year, hadn't paid a penny in corporation tax for three years.

Tory donor and 'non-dom' tax avoider Lord Ashcroft was even brought into the cabinet!

This government is hand in glove with billionaire tax cheats. Cameron's words are completely hollow. This is a government of the rich, for the rich - they give us job cuts and their mates tax cuts. Workers need their own party that will stand up to this abuse.

In this issue

Socialist Party NHS news & campaigning

NHS workers resist cuts

Privatisation: Bleeding the NHS dry

Heatherwood hospital campaign shows determination

East Midlands: Campaign forces retreat on ambulance station closure

Life as an NHS worker: bullying and stress

Socialist Party news and analysis

Cameron takes a gamble by threatening EU referendum

Austerity's utter failure

Taxing words from Cameron?

Aaron Swartz: a fight to free information

Them & Us

Fighting the cuts

Southampton councillors have a choice ... Don't vote for cuts!

Hull councillors ready to vote No

Brighton's Greens vote for cuts in workers' allowances

Labour meltdown in Stoke-on-Trent continues; and Unison withholds funding

Stop Sheffield children's centre closures

Workplace news and events

Twelfth day of strike action by Tyne and Wear metro cleaners

DfE strike ballot

London teachers call for strike action against Performance Related Pay

Workplace news in brief

Socialist Party review

Fired up by Fire in the Blood - a story of big business cruelty and neglect

Socialist Party reports and campaigns

Jumping through hoops for a job

Shrewsbury 24: What is the government hiding?

Wales conference - confidence in socialist ideas

Server appeal: Members provide a huge boost to our resources

Socialist Party National Congress 2013

Home   |   The Socialist 30 January 2013   |   Join the Socialist Party

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Related links:

Tax:

Is Biden offering a new 'New Deal'?

Colombia: Mass trade union-led protests force tax retreat

How to deal with the tax-dodging mega-rich? Nationalise!

Freeports spell deregulation, low pay and a new race to the bottom

Would a wealth tax end poverty and inequality?

Rich:

No trust in billionaire owners - kick them out and reclaim the game

Rich pickings for private companies - peanuts for health workers

Why I'm standing for TUSC

Not a budget for the working class!

Government:

Bobby Sands - Nothing but an Unfinished Song

Stop Israeli state brutality

Welsh Labour holds on to government but new crises loom

Cuts:

RMT: Militant industrial and political strategy must be fought for

Can the 'Preston model' beat the cuts?