[neilt0]

Well, I used to be a fan. Not so much now. He earns £3.5m a year and pays 1% tax. Fair?

When The Daily Mail (slightly to the right of Genghis Khan) and the Tory PM say you have gone too far, you have gone too far.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... s_rss_feed

Also, don't mock others for what you are doing, you hypocritical twunt:

Carr recently performed a comedy sketch lampooning Barclays, which has been criticised for tax avoidance.

Playing a female bank clerk, he joked: ‘Why don’t you apply for the Barclays 1 per cent tax scam?

‘You will need the world’s biggest, most aggressive team of blood-hungry amoral tax lawyers. If you meet the criteria, you’ll pay 1 per cent tax, like Barclays do.’

[DarroM]

Apparently Gary Barlow is in the same situation, well my mother said!

[The Deadly]

If I was rich I would do all I could (provided it was legal) to avoid paying tax. Good on him.

[Yudster]

I think he's a bit stupid to use other people doing it as joke material if he is doing it too, but honestly, if I had enough money that tax was an issue I would expect my accountant to manage it in the most effective way for me - and I imagine that's what is happening with Jimmy Carr. As far as I can make out, he has a lump sum invested in this scheme on which he only pays 1% - he'll still be paying the full rate of tax on all his income so he isn't exactly not contributing.

I don't think he comes out of this with a lot of dignity, but to be honest, I can't get too worked up about it. Its peanuts compared to what some of the massive corporations avoid without worrying about it.

[nade]

Totally agree with Yudster, large companies do it all the time, and in other cases football clubs *cough* Glasgow Rangers *cough*

I'm certain another example is Amazon who I believe based their "company" or something out of the channel islands.

It's being blown up into this big news article because it's someone fairly well known and it'll shift a few papers.

[chrisjames]

I must say I was shocked and dissapppointed to hear that Gary Barlow might be involved in something like this.he seems like such a top bloke.I really hope it i sn.t true. I'm not so surprised about Jimmy Carr though.Every wealthy person should pay their fair share of taxes,and give back to society some of what they have received.Hard working nurses or cleaners can't dodge paying their taxes after all!

OK political rant of the day over.I'm off to watch Midsomer Murders

[chrysostom]

He should be lambasted for being a hypocrite, but it's 100% legal and there's nothing wrong with it. He works pretty hard (non stop touring and a hell of a lot of tv work), if most people could legally get out of paying income tax on figures above £150k then they would.

Yes it's more money than most people can imagine, but he isn't breaking the law. There are lots of tax loopholes - why shouldn't people use them? Taxing the rich at a higher rate will always lead to them paying people lots money to find ways to get out of paying it.

Do people dislike every Brit who moves to Tax Havens? No. It seems a bit harsh on JC.

[chrisjames]

George Osbourne has him in his sights.It won't be legal in a years time! the tax man cometh!

[SAV1OUR]

Use a celebrity - therefore magnifying the issue on his shoulders.

Get PM to mention him, then the issue becomes centralised to one person.

That's what they're saying anyway, much easier to use celebs, let them carry the burden and shame.

Nothing wrong with that in itself though, but I can't wait for this week's edition of 8 out of 10 fatcats.

[DevilsDuck]

I am willing to bet that most people earning that kind of money are doing the same thing... Probably even MPs!

[slaphead1982]

I don't have all the facts but I do understand that what he has done to pay less tax is legal, so what's the hoo har about?
If the government want to close down this loophole that your on about then just do it as quickly as they can and be done with it.

[Emmy]

I can't stand the smug *expletive* so I'm delighted to see him getting some stick for anything at all. I wouldn't be surprised at Barlow being involved in similar either, he's another horribly smug one. I've never understand why Chris is such a fan of both.

[DevilsDuck]

Chris can be quite smug

[slaphead1982]

Robbie Williams. Now he really is smug and Lee Mack does a funny routine about him.

[a-moron]

Re: Emmys post. - on phone and it's being an *expletive deleted* trying to quote.
I know some *expletive deleted* has some financial savvy and thusly uses a legal loophole to allow him some taxation grace, forced upon by a banking *expletive deleted* up and a government bail out causing a catastrophic recession. I hate those *expletives deleted*. Calm the * down why don't you. Sorry, *expletive should have been deleted but couldn't be **.
Shit, done it again.

[bmstinton93]

Badger I love you. <3

[Emmy]

I don't have much a view either way on this whole tax issue, and if it was a celebrity I liked I'm quite sure I'd be saying that I couldn't see any problem with it. The point I was making is that I intensely dislike Carr, so whether he's being vilified for supposed tax avoidance or for squirting a water pistol at a cat it's all good in my eyes.

[The Deadly]

You know Jimmy Carr's act is just that don't you? An act. He is smug and a bit smarmy and has been since he broke in. All comediens have a certain style when the perform to stand out from the others. When Jimmy Carr has been on the CM show I have found him to be entertaining and a decent guest.

[a-moron]

Love you too Ben Kenobi.
Emmy - you are now pandering to the Daily Mail mindset. Take a celebrity who people may have an agenda against, talk some shite, see a bit of poor arsed journalism become a story. Multi-billion pound corporations do shit loads worse and are ignored in favour of the easy target. Granted squirting water at a cat can only be thought of as a good thing.
Evil little *.

[bmstinton93]

Granted squirting water at a cat can only be thought of as a good thing.
Evil little *.

I retract my previous comment.

[a-moron]

Who you kidding, you love a wet pus...
I really have a problem.
Sorry.

[dimtimjim]

My accountant does good things for me, but I don't earn £3.5m like JC does. (i'm only on £3.2m... )

As previously stated, perhaps not great, but perfectly legal and much less of an issue than certain large companies. Amazon, Rangers and Vodaphone are the tip of the iceberg.

This will not change my viewpoint on Jimmy one bit.

[Yudster]

A series of three tweets has probably salvaged Mr Carr as much dignity as is possible from the whole sorry mess:

Jimmy Carr ‏@jimmycarr
I met with a financial advisor and he said to me “Do you want to pay less tax? It’s totally legal.” I said “Yes.”

Jimmy Carr ‏@jimmycarr
I now realise I’ve made a terrible error of judgement.

Jimmy Carr ‏@jimmycarr
I’m no longer involved in it and will in future conduct my financial affairs much more responsibly. Apologies to everyone. Jimmy Carr

Not a lot else he could say really.

[chrysostom]

It's sad to be honest. Surprised that so much attention was paid to him. More fodder for people to moan about the rich.

[The Deadly]

I don't think he should have accepted any blame at all. It's his life and his money and he was doing nothing illegal.