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| David Cameron’s tax affairs should be no private matter David Cameron’s tax affairs should be no private matter | |
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| Downing Street insists that David Cameron’s tax affairs are “a private matter” (The hidden deals that helped Cameron’s father avoid paying UK tax, 5 April). This is very much a British upper-class way of looking at things, with their earnings being up there with their sexual orientations and religious beliefs, as matters strictly between them and their gods. To ask an English gentleman or lady in public what he or she earns is “bad form” at best. | Downing Street insists that David Cameron’s tax affairs are “a private matter” (The hidden deals that helped Cameron’s father avoid paying UK tax, 5 April). This is very much a British upper-class way of looking at things, with their earnings being up there with their sexual orientations and religious beliefs, as matters strictly between them and their gods. To ask an English gentleman or lady in public what he or she earns is “bad form” at best. |
| In fact, how you earn your lucre is of very great public relevance. Money isn’t earned in a vacuum, after all, or by your own unaided efforts, but is facilitated by the opportunities and rules that the political society around you provides. What anyone earns is therefore of legitimate interest in a democratic society. That is especially so when private profit can have an impact on the more general good, as is clearly the case when taxes that could be spent on new schools and hospitals are spirited away in “tax havens” – especially when responsibility for those havens lies with the British Foreign Office ultimately. So of course we should all be able to see their tax returns, as Jeremy Corbyn has already volunteered. | In fact, how you earn your lucre is of very great public relevance. Money isn’t earned in a vacuum, after all, or by your own unaided efforts, but is facilitated by the opportunities and rules that the political society around you provides. What anyone earns is therefore of legitimate interest in a democratic society. That is especially so when private profit can have an impact on the more general good, as is clearly the case when taxes that could be spent on new schools and hospitals are spirited away in “tax havens” – especially when responsibility for those havens lies with the British Foreign Office ultimately. So of course we should all be able to see their tax returns, as Jeremy Corbyn has already volunteered. |
| In Sweden, as I understand it, this is entrenched in law. Anyone is entitled to have sight of anyone else’s tax returns and assessments. This probably derives from Sweden’s more social and democratic underlying culture than our more individualistic and secretive one. I’ve lived there, on and off, for 20 years, paying Swedish taxes, and not yet noticed any ill effects.Bernard PorterStockholm | In Sweden, as I understand it, this is entrenched in law. Anyone is entitled to have sight of anyone else’s tax returns and assessments. This probably derives from Sweden’s more social and democratic underlying culture than our more individualistic and secretive one. I’ve lived there, on and off, for 20 years, paying Swedish taxes, and not yet noticed any ill effects.Bernard PorterStockholm |
| • David Cameron saying it is a private matter whether he is still benefiting from his late father’s offshore tax arrangements, which enabled the fund run by the late Mr Cameron to pay no UK tax for 30 years, says two things to me loud and clear. One, yes he is still benefiting from his father’s offshore tax dealings and, two, it is not a private matter. He is the prime minister and as such has a clear duty to say whether or not, while condemning offshore arrangements to avoid paying UK tax, he is still the beneficiary of such an arrangement and, if he is not, when he ceased to do so.Valerie CrewsBeckenham, Kent | • David Cameron saying it is a private matter whether he is still benefiting from his late father’s offshore tax arrangements, which enabled the fund run by the late Mr Cameron to pay no UK tax for 30 years, says two things to me loud and clear. One, yes he is still benefiting from his father’s offshore tax dealings and, two, it is not a private matter. He is the prime minister and as such has a clear duty to say whether or not, while condemning offshore arrangements to avoid paying UK tax, he is still the beneficiary of such an arrangement and, if he is not, when he ceased to do so.Valerie CrewsBeckenham, Kent |
| • I work in an Age UK charity shop where I’m registered for gift aid. Seeing a pair of my old shoes go for a fiver yesterday, I got to thinking about the taxman’s little refund from my tiny contribution to the revenue. Then I got to thinking about the prime minister’s late father whose fund, thanks to Panama, reportedly paid no tax at all. | • I work in an Age UK charity shop where I’m registered for gift aid. Seeing a pair of my old shoes go for a fiver yesterday, I got to thinking about the taxman’s little refund from my tiny contribution to the revenue. Then I got to thinking about the prime minister’s late father whose fund, thanks to Panama, reportedly paid no tax at all. |
| But what about gift aid on school fees, I thought. Eton college is just as much a charity as Age UK, and equally as deserving. So, when Cameron senior was shelling out for junior’s education, how could the college collect his gift aid if he hadn’t paid any tax? I’m sure he would have worked the system sufficiently to pay just enough tax for Eton to claim it all back in the name of charity, leaving everyone happy. After all, you get what you pay for.John SmithSheffield | But what about gift aid on school fees, I thought. Eton college is just as much a charity as Age UK, and equally as deserving. So, when Cameron senior was shelling out for junior’s education, how could the college collect his gift aid if he hadn’t paid any tax? I’m sure he would have worked the system sufficiently to pay just enough tax for Eton to claim it all back in the name of charity, leaving everyone happy. After all, you get what you pay for.John SmithSheffield |
| • Finding that Cameron’s family firm is called Blairmore is almost as good as discovering, long ago, that the world’s largest soy bean baron, blamed for destroying the Amazon rainforest, is called Blairo Maggi. Of course, none of them is doing anything illegal. | • Finding that Cameron’s family firm is called Blairmore is almost as good as discovering, long ago, that the world’s largest soy bean baron, blamed for destroying the Amazon rainforest, is called Blairo Maggi. Of course, none of them is doing anything illegal. |
| But didn’t we know about Cameron Sr’s tax activities some time ago, possibly in the obituaries? Did the Guardian, Labour party and everyone else decide they shouldn’t speak ill of the dead?Judith MartinWinchester, Hampshire | But didn’t we know about Cameron Sr’s tax activities some time ago, possibly in the obituaries? Did the Guardian, Labour party and everyone else decide they shouldn’t speak ill of the dead?Judith MartinWinchester, Hampshire |
| • Re your headline “The hidden deals that helped David Cameron’s father avoid paying UK tax” (5 April), can we now expect a Daily Mail headline: “The Man Whose Father Robbed the British Taxpayer”? Or will Paul Dacre also consider this a private matter?Phil HuntBarningham, County Durham | • Re your headline “The hidden deals that helped David Cameron’s father avoid paying UK tax” (5 April), can we now expect a Daily Mail headline: “The Man Whose Father Robbed the British Taxpayer”? Or will Paul Dacre also consider this a private matter?Phil HuntBarningham, County Durham |
| • Was Jimmy Carr’s tax avoidance – described by Cameron as “morally wrong” – qualitatively different from Cameron’s father’s tax avoidance – described by Cameron as “a private matter”?John SaundersOxford | • Was Jimmy Carr’s tax avoidance – described by Cameron as “morally wrong” – qualitatively different from Cameron’s father’s tax avoidance – described by Cameron as “a private matter”?John SaundersOxford |
| • After the latest revelations on how some of the rich do their utmost to protect their wealth from tax, who will now be the first Tory minister to stand up in parliament and tell us yet again that we are all in it together?David Winnick MPLabour, Walsall North | • After the latest revelations on how some of the rich do their utmost to protect their wealth from tax, who will now be the first Tory minister to stand up in parliament and tell us yet again that we are all in it together?David Winnick MPLabour, Walsall North |
| • Why don’t all leaders of the opposition parties publish the details of their own tax affairs? This should flush out those who have something to hide.Jim HadfieldStapleton, North Yorkshire | • Why don’t all leaders of the opposition parties publish the details of their own tax affairs? This should flush out those who have something to hide.Jim HadfieldStapleton, North Yorkshire |
| • Even if my father had dodged taxes, he still would not have been rich enough to send me to Eton or finance my membership of the Bullingdon Club.John LoaderWest Witton, North Yorkshire | • Even if my father had dodged taxes, he still would not have been rich enough to send me to Eton or finance my membership of the Bullingdon Club.John LoaderWest Witton, North Yorkshire |
| • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com | • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com |