Highest Rated Comments


major_grooves33 karma

Charlie Chester = child molester.

major_grooves6 karma

What do you think about the lack of Scotland players in the British Lions squad for the New Zealand tour?

major_grooves4 karma

Because it is literally not tax evasion. Of course that is presuming he is not them taking the money from his child and putting it in his own pocket. That would be evasion. I'm guessing it goes in to his kid's trust fund or something like that in which case I think it is perfectly legal.

major_grooves3 karma

I may be missing your point, but what's actually wrong with that?

It's pretty normal to charge things through a company instead of taking direct employment - particularly in broadcasting I believe. And it's not that unusual to have a child as a shareholder in your company, particularly for long-term tax planning.

I'm all for cracking down on real tax evasion, but this isn't evasion.

major_grooves1 karma

I think it's 100% in the spirit of the law. It's maybe seems different to us, because most of us are used to just getting employed and paying taxes as an employee, but he's really not done anything wrong with this arrangement.

Remember it has its downsides too for him - he can be let go by the BBC any time, since he is just a "supplier" - if he falls ill the BBC won't be paying for any sick leave, he gets no generous BBC pension from them - that all has to be paid for by his company. To all intents and purposes he is a freelancer, just that he earns enough that it makes sense to be a company.

I really don't like tax evasion, but lets not tar people with a brush they don't deserve.

btw if you didn't see it he came back and talked about the tax issue: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/31w5vu/hi_im_jeremy_vine_the_bbcs_election_analyst/cq6t9w7 It was the BBC that asked him to do this - probably so he's not on their payroll.