Why Jimmy Carr HATES tax loopholes | Room 101 - BBC

[@juliaconnell]

*respect* to Jimmy Carr - he owns up to what he did - while ALSO pointing out inherent flaws in the system - while ALSO making this funny - *respect*

[@jpaine619]

Yeah.. Those "flaws" are used by regular people every day to survive.. Get a larger deduction because you have kids? How the hell is that fair to people without kids.. Why should a person with kids (who is arguably a larger drain on the system) get to pay less taxes than someone without?

[@sinu0us]

@@jpaine619 they have to spend money on those kids, so the net remaining is essentially the same...

[@0d138]

@@jpaine619 Because without those kids that society woulf be screwed some day...

[@ronweasley9001]

@@jpaine619 i bet you dont have kids and live under a bridge

[@BigAlCapwn]

I like Jimmy but he didn't "own up", he was exposed by a newspaper and then was forced to put things right to save his career. Had The Times not discovered the story and ran it, I'm sure he'd still have the same arrangement in place today

[@abigailwildlife1322]

I respect him for being able to admit his wrong doing and laugh about it

[@MegaHooper25]

Weak insults boys 😂

[@rajabuta]

@Your Dad Said it's not gay if you beat him up afterwards

[@mahdisuccar9054]

I don’t think he’s wrong

[@stephenmurray2851]

He wasn't doing wrong though. It's his money. Why should he have almost half of his sweat stolen from him?

[@abigailwildlife1322]

@@stephenmurray2851 because it's only fair people who have more give more it's for the benefit of the poorer and will help improve society as a whole

[@alsmoviebarn]

The fact that this came to light 7 years ago and he still jokes about it is amazing. Charlie Brooker once asked him, "did you do that whole thing just to get more material?"

[@viktorragnarwashuus8157]

Well, I mean he does take a lot of flak for it as well, and it seems like he has genuine remorse for his actions, and want to make a change, not only for himself but for others as well. So I'd say he can joke about it as long as he wants.

[@0d138]

Pretty sure this clip is from a while back also...

[@secallen]

@@0d138 Is Jimmy carr still on TV these days?

[@TheEregos]

@@viktorragnarwashuus8157 I think it is easy for him because it was not actually his issue, he thought he was in the right hands and had someone else handle his taxes of which they did this. It backfired hard on the man.

[@eternalmonsoon8103]

@@TheEregos I know I'm replying to a year old comment but here we are... With most disguised remuneration schemes like the K2 one Jimmy was involved in, it should be pretty obvious what you are doing is dodgy. Taking a pay cut and being provided with a 'loan' you are never expected to have to pay back. That said, as Jimmy is quite clear here, although wrong, it is within the ambiguous guidelines and therefore unclear if lawful or not. The current focus is now on corporations but there is still a lot of work to do on such schemes.

[@The-Rest-of-Us]

What people don’t get is that not every rich person is evil and trying to avoid taxes at all costs. It’s a systematic problem: when you got a certain amount of money you hire an accountant/ tax consultant to handle your paper work for you. The job of those people is to optimize your financials and make sure you pay as few taxes as legally possible. If they don’t do that then they didn’t do their job. So if there are tax avoidance loop holes in the law at all they will be used. Jimmy is right: the only way to solve it is to simplify the law.

[@veryanonymous3630]

I think in this case we're seeing the single greatest disadvantage of the house of lords. Even if the public made enough noise to make this happen, how would the vote get past that lot?

[@sirdiesalot2975]

@@veryanonymous3630 The counter to that would be that they can only veto/push back a law for a year. If it's proposed again one year later, the Lords have to automatically accept it. The problem here is if the law benefits a lot of people in either of the Houses of Parliament or isn't seen as a top priority, MPs sort of just forget about it after a year. Even if it's actually a major concern for the public. Lobbying, corruption, and backers of the political party in majority potentially causing fuss over the law being re-proposed don't help either. And if the Commons change a proposal, the whole thing starts all over again! Hooray for our bi-cameral political system! Bit of a wall of text, but this is effectively why no truly great change ever really happens.

[@veryanonymous3630]

@@sirdiesalot2975 Well I learned something today. Cheers! Sounds like the solution is to have an activist organisation keeping an eye on this so they can raise some noise when the law comes back around in a year's time.

[@RossMalagarie]

Yes that is the simple way to fix it. You know why that will never happen? Because those in charge want to use those loopholes. That's why they make it legal to "cheat" taxes. That way they can pay someone to make sure they don't have to pay taxes and if they want they can come after you for doing the same thing. Just ask Jimmy Carr as the video shows.

[@reuben8140]

I want to live in a world where all KZbin discussions are like this 😌

[@alsoyes3287]

Thank you for that 'crying laughing' emoji to guide me to an appropriate response to the content of this video.

[@cjdodsworth]

😂

[@omarbukhary]

Wow thanks for sharing krieger, very cool.

[@0d138]

...Don't...thank...You do not thank for this...This is sad...very sad only...

[@dobbsmill3676]

If i was rich and my accountant said "do you want a legal way to pay less tax?" I would say yes. If you dont want people to do it make it illegal. Same with all these huge companies not paying tax. They are not behaving illegally. It needs changing.

[@MrBraddles3128]

If I was broke (which I am) and my accountant said “Do you want a legal way to pay less tax?”, I would also say yes. Everybody would say yes.

[@veryanonymous3630]

@@MrBraddles3128 Forgive my confusion but if you're broke then presumably you aren't earning (or earning much) so why are you paying taxes?

[@MrBraddles3128]

Very Anonymous because tax automatically comes out of my pay before I even get my payslip, just like everybody else in my tax bracket.

[@veryanonymous3630]

@Ddhfacetyy My point is that you don't get taxed much until you are earning a pretty reasonable wage which does hopefully make it less likely that you'll be broke. Though to be honest we aren't really complaining about those who are broke abusing this as we are those who are very much not.

[@MrBraddles3128]

Very Anonymous, I think you're missing the point here. Tax is money that the government takes out of the money you've worked for. Doesn't matter if it's $5 or $50,000, the principle's the same. If I can pay less tax and not break the law, I'm going for it. As far as I'm concerned, my money is better in my pocket than the government's.

[@AngelicusImmortus]

Just so folk know - Cameron’s family have over a billion off shore. It’s simply placed under his father’s name, his mothers name etc. He put his PM pay in every two months and then took a loan out of it and paid tax on the loan.

[@PoppyCorn144]

@AngelicusImmortus The hypocrisy in that speech is astounding. Yet unsurprising. I wish he had to say it to Paxman and had been made to justify his own tax dodges.

[@nameundefinedname5307]

EXACTLY

[@miriambe7150]

I *beg* you to not put emojis in your thumbnails

[@nikobellic2086]

Pls

[@themadplotter]

@Sean Davis mate do you know the difference between a thumbnail and an avatar?

[@themadplotter]

@Sean Davis No I'm just a neighbourhood pedant. Also fyi it's not really semantics if the words have different meanings.

[@timmylumsden8060]

@@themadplotter you will always find them in kitchen at parties

[@Near_Void]

R/FellowKids

[@Alec30]

Hearing david Cameron talk about morals is so funny

[@Azjayfox]

I love how Jimmy makes a joke out of absolutely anything! Legend

[@DavidCruickshank]

My respect for Jimmy Carr has gone up massively.

[@rogenjosh]

He defrauded the tax payer and he then said sorry, after he got caught! How brave

[@R0ndras]

@@rogenjosh You haven't listened a single word of what he said, right?

[@TanakaMatsumoto]

@@rogenjosh He did nothing wrong and he didn''t have to pay that back, he chose to, so yes how brave would you willingly give up tons of money you made legally? 100$ says if you had the money and ability to take advantage you would too, like most people... People are only super mad because most of us can't take advantage of it, and since no one else has come out and paid back what they should have paid I'd say he's braver than most. He doesn't need to work I'm sure he could live off what he has earned up to now, so no he didn't simply do it to save his career, he could have kept the money and been even better off financially.

[@kingofmonra]

The funny part of this is that David Cameron did the exact same thing. Also interesting that he only points out that Carr was doing it, whilst other celebs were also doing so.

[@viperswhip]

well, those celebs don't constantly take the piss out of him either though. Still, the tax ep of 8/10 Cats is legendary.

[@kingofmonra]

@@viperswhip true.

[@MAV44]

He’s got a point.

[@lwaves]

Yep, and the reason those laws aren't changed is because the people making those laws are also using these loopholes.

[@sirmount2636]

@@lwaves Taxation is theft

[@rotties-rules]

Jimmy is right the laws need to be black and white.

[@andrewharper1609]

The laws are black and white. The problem is HMRCs attitude.

[@sebrussell]

@@andrewharper1609 That's patently false. The reason that Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance are noted as different things is because you can use loopholes in the law to Avoid paying taxes in a way that is 100% legal and therefore not illegally Evading taxes. If you can legally do something that is morally equivalent to something that is illegal, then there are problems with the law.

[@andrewharper1609]

@@sebrussell Not patently false. But you're right about there being problems with the law. But you should remember that the courts have ruled in favour of the taxpayer ever since the Duke of Westminster case because there is no reason lawful or otherwise for a citizen to overpay the amount of tax they pay. Unfortunately what you say also applies to other aspects of the law upon which subject I can say no more until I can get some matters resolved.

[@iAmTheSquidThing]

Absolutely. For two reasons: Vague tax laws allow the rich to dodge taxes. And vague tax laws also enable government corruption in which they use selective enforcement to punish their political enemies. Publicly shaming a handful of celebrities for not following the "spirit of the law" does nothing to solve the real problems.

[@mancrunning1210]

That sounds like segregation

[@PoppyCorn144]

I love that he can joke about this and admit he was wrong.

[@newperve]

But he wasn't he paid the legally required taxes. If the government wanted more money they can stop bombing people.

[@nairocamilo]

3:49 "There's a clear law against that!" Jimmy Carr is a very clever fella

[@RealityCheck6T9]

Shove your emojis. Thanks.

[@Communist-Doge]

😂😂😂👌

[@iangascoigne8231]

The despicable thing about Cameron on this, was his deafening silence on Garry Barlow who did the same thing, because he was is mate

[@DustyKorpse]

Cameron had the audacity to say that when him and his Eton mates do exactly that themselves.

[@obelisk941]

funnily enough, Jimmy Carr also went to Eton

[@fsbyron]

No he didn’t

[@jfluffydog2110]

@@obelisk941 no

[@b0rg1010]

David Cameron telling everyone else about moral standards. That's a bit rich coming from him.

[@Janinho897]

Essentially what you're saying there is "He shouldn't be a politician." , right?

[@onesong2001]

It came straight from the pig's mouth but that's another story. This is the PM who said he would never legalise cannabis because it's claimed that one person has died because of it. A guy a few miles from me choked to death on a Big Mac but you can still buy those everywhere. I don't believe it, unless, maybe, a bale of it weighing one or two tonnes was accidently dropped on them.

[@yusufabdulle7349]

I think this might have made me like Jimmy Carr a little more

[@johanliebert6000]

Why would anyone hate him

[@johanliebert6000]

Obnoxious? How? lol wtf

[@explanationmark_]

Random Scottish Bloke he is slightly obnoxious but honestly that’s the nature of being a comedian. He’s a very funny guy

[@kianhughes6309]

Random Scottish Bloke Oh if you don’t like obnoxious people then I can see why you don’t like him. His obnoxious side is his funniest side in my eyes

[@popejimbo1]

This is a masterclass in taking ownership of your mistakes.

[@francaperotti5934]

No mistake he knew exactly what he was doing.

[@cld244]

Franca Perotti Regardless, he is taking ownership.

[@francaperotti5934]

@@cld244 when his ugly mug was all over the paper he had no choice.

[@cld244]

@@francaperotti5934 He handled it better than a lot of others would have.

[@cld244]

@Conor Malone No one said it wasn'legal. What does your comment have to do with this conversation.

[@carajay1851]

Yes Jimmy!!! Classic.. owned it. Signed, sealed and certainly delivered.. very well done 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

[@brandonkey181]

Little did he know all 3 of those people offshore their money

[@philliphayden2727]

If it was a legal tax loophole, what's the problem? The government are responsible, and should change the laws to close the loop holes, all of them.

[@rileymclellan8953]

My brain is finding it hard to grasp the concept that someone can have a natural laugh that sounds like that

[@lstormhammer]

You know those campfire tales about a ventriloquist's dummy coming to life...?

[@rileymclellan8953]

No but I am now convinced and terrified

[@jumbo4billion]

He used to have a real laugh but started using the fake one around ten years ago.

[@kedabro1957]

@@jumbo4billion ... Can you link us to some footage of his old laugh?

[@jumbo4billion]

@@kedabro1957 No, I don't like him enough to look for him on yt.

[@niveshproag3761]

He's a freaking god at fielding questions and making people like him.

[@Efflorescentey]

I didn’t kill anyone - there’s a clear law on that 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@jamesrobertson9012]

Fair play for not shying away from it

[@biocode4478]

"it's the inland revenue and I live by the sea" reminds one of the "ship money"

[@loudross]

Ironic David Cameron said that after what happened with the Panama Papers

[@euphoria842]

Oh man I didn't know what to feel, thanks for the emoji in the thumbnail.

[@TheDevilsAdvocate.]

I remember when this happened and I’ll never forget him coming back on TV and just taking that shit he was getting off everyone. He owned up to it, took the consequences and the snide jabs like a boss, this is how I know under it all he’s a decent bloke. It’s also the only reason that like what? 10 years later he’s all but forgiven. Forgiveness can be a long hard road to walk and it’s up to us to respect the person that walks it to the end.

[@RazEdits]

Dear BBC, Stop with the bleeding emojis. Many thanks, Everyone

[@mrcaljoe1]

Dear Andy, Shut up.

[@kucingdterbakard3765]

No bring them bak

[@potterpotty01]

How he came out of this, by laughing at his own scandal was genius!

[@saelaird]

Legend. I'd do the same. No guilt. "My tickets are significantly more expense now than they were" Haha

[@willyum3920]

Fair play to Jimmy Carr, he owned it and got away with it from a career point of view. I'm glad he's still on our screens. Tax avoidance and David Cameron however...... the sheer hypocrisy.

[@youknow227]

If I anything I truly believe it helped his reputation, owning up to it, because NO ONE has ever done that apart from him, completely taking the blame for a scandal, Angus deayton rguably, but he did it again

[@dansaunders1655]

2:24 His laugh is hilarious, but so unsettling to hear after Jimmy's the one who's just made the joke. Hee

[@aprillane8382]

I bought a ticket to see you once bankrupted me I’d like a refund with interest lol 😂

[@PtolemyJones]

I find it interesting that you can get in trouble for following the law, but not the spirit, and that being moral is important there. We would have almost no politicians in the US if we did that here.

[@Scipio-Africannabis]

That limited company joke was amazing, literally nobody got it but Jimmy still saved face. Top comedian. Don't care about his tax payments.

[@fraserwebster8761]

Oh god, stop with this “at least he owned up”. As Iain Hislop said to John Prescott “you didn’t own up to it, you were revealed as doing it”. Jimmy should just apologise and shut up. He brings it up constantly in the hope of diffusing it. Do me a favour.

[@Calh92]

Exactly, if he was sorry he did it he would have confessed to it rather than apologise once someone else revealed it.

[@14Mentalist]

He is such a good sport on the matter he got done and payed the price. Such a funny clip.

[@spaceo8568]

I love Frank Skinner.

[@fireonion7092]

David Cameron talking about what's not morally acceptable? I love the way old stories come back to haunt, you just have to wait a bit......

[@matthewruss]

Funny thing about David Cameron saying that when he gave himself countless raises and cut alot of public funding

[@steveozone4910]

Because DC never did the same thing :)

[@Maerahn]

Yeah, I wonder if his daddy rang him up afterwards and said "Er, yeah, son, you and me should probably have a little talk..."?

[@kevinbennett7615]

Nice shout out to the genius of Ken Dodd there.

[@onesong2001]

Why didn't you pay the Inland Revenue? I live by the sea, I'm in tears

[@worldmikel]

A master of good demeanor. When you think about the volume of his jokes and retorts, you have to imagine that he wouldn't have time in his day to worry about cheating on taxes. His act and lines are rarely repeated. Look at videos of other comedians and you see they've worked up 30 minutes worth of stuff and change the order. Look at Carr's stuff and it is hours without a repeat.

[@FishFreddy]

At this point Jimmy made more money about the tax loopholes than it saved him.

[@LordRaxyn]

The main thing about this is that it's easy to hate people for exploiting loopholes but most people would probably do it themselves given the chance. If someone tells you that you can save a huge amount of money every year for no effort and it's completely legal are you really going to say no? The only way to deal with that is to make it not possible to get that option in the first place.

[@ScoopMeisterGeneral]

I hate David Cameron with a passion.

[@AHighlander]

Immolation.\m/🔥

[@speedrob]

Is this BBC or CBEEBIES with that emoji lmao.

[@kb9072]

If I was Jimmy Carr I would of said I'll pay my tax when the Prime Minister does. Cameron is a HYPOCRITE !!

[@composedlight6850]

So Frank Skinner has not undertaken Tax avoidance LOL Cameron’s family have millions pounds off shore trust and managed not to pay death duties and he claims that is fair.

[@LukeFaulkner]

4:17 *Court:* Why didn't you pay any tax? *Ken Dodd:* It's the Inland Revenue and I live by the sea.

[@bridgepointgroup]

that bit had me in stitches!

[@marcusp905]

13 dislikes from HMRC ,wish I was in the house's of lords, I could claim 50,000£ in expenses and not doing anything

[@jim191185]

*£50,000 *Expenses

[@GuanoLad]

The problem with "avoidance" crimes like this is that everyone else does it, everyone knows everyone else does it, and they are legally allowed to do it. The laws to allow it are still on the books because it benefits the people who are making the laws. Jimmy did nothing illegal, he did what every other wealthy person wants to do and does do. He just got called out for it by name (and subsequently never denied it and made reparations towards it), but in the same way that Lance Armstrong doped up to make himself competitive, it was what everyone around him was doing and getting away with, so no wonder that you assume it's not wrong, and it seems more unfair to be singled out for it to take the biggest share of the blame.

[@leonbanks5728]

A pension contribution is a tax avoidance scheme as well but that's encouraged by the government.

[@NeoDragoN7676]

What the hell is going on with that Thumbnail? I had to look a few time to make sure it was actually the BBC.

[@ZarkowsWorld]

They hired an intern or someone that think they are down with the kids

[@Near_Void]

Its another thing the bbc do well, get on everyones nerves. The BBC claim they are non bias, but do you see how much coverage they are putting onto the conservatives rn? There are many other political parties available, from labour to the greens. Yet the way they present is also very conservative, they dont talk about some of the wars that are happening rn. There was a war in ukraine a little while ago, and there wasnt much coverage on that, but there was coverage of other things thatbdont matter. They try to be down with the newer generations by doing all these emojis, but really, its bullshit

[@andymcl92]

Comment guide: "Well done, Jimmy" 40% "Nice emoji in the thumbnail" 30% "No, don't ever put emoji's in the thumbnails!" 30%

[@HA05GER]

Hes right these loop holes should be closed if they are there people are going to use them.

[@R0ndras]

A lot of people are hating on Jimmy but he is being honest and upfront about what he did. Most people will just avoid, deny,etc he isn't doing that. And he clearly wants to change, that's fuckin great. This thing also happened in Spain, lawyers were recomeding to actors,musicians,etc to create "companies" for taxes and such and obviously most of them dont know shit about taxes,economies,laws,etc so a lot of them had to pay a fine when they were caught doing that. Why they could do that? Loopholes.

[@ryiin]

How the f can David Cameron even say that to anyone. Hypocrit.

[@a120068020]

There was a few laugh out loud moments there. Excellent work.

[@bjorn2625]

Eithe Carr is a genius or he has got the most amazing PR agency. This angle completely defuses the issue for him.

[@carlwitt3934]

Someone should mention to the host that windows have a designed purpose that doesn't involve theft.... What exactly is the purpose of those loopholes if not specifically for theft.

[@mydooreillusion8191]

David Mitchell on the last leg said all this 1st

[@MrRob49815]

Yeah, but what's funny is that Jimmy Carr is saying it even though he himself exploited the same loophole. Just because one person mentions something that's regularly on the news, in a panel show doesn't mean others cant talk about it elsewhere.

[@kyleabraham2655]

Rochelle Humes just casually fan girling over Jimmy Carr here 😹😹😹

[@Jake12220]

The simple fact is that Jimmy was never the problem, the problem was always the corrupt people writing the laws and deliberately avoiding closing known tax evasion loopholes.

[@deadlee0b1]

The epitome of "Don't hate the player, hate the game"

[@bambino9235]

I don't like Jimmy Carr all that much, but I have to respect him for putting his hands up and being able to take the piss out of himself, both when other people take jabs at him for it but also there's a couple of instances of him bringing up jokes himself before other people do. He almost makes an excuse by saying "well the loophole's there" but he still accepts that it's morally wrong to take advantage of it. Fair play

[@lukeevans6070]

Moffat I see you ;)

[@PotWeedKush]

Fair play to Jimmy man.

[@Stiofan1979]

David Cameron saying it's wrong to avoid paying tax, mentioning Jimmy Carr, then getting found out avoiding tax himself......

[@Dan-tw5qb]

David Cameron's dad had money in Panama Hypocrite

[@lg4372]

I didn’t kill anyone, because there’s a clear law about it.. 🤪😜😜😜😂😂😂

[@DocRealTalk]

The funniest joke was how he said his tickets are significantly more now than they were :P Meaning his higher tax rate is still paid by the public lol It's the same thing corporations do...if they are forced to pay more tax their products will go up in price.

[@epiphany55]

This is the problem with income as a source of tax. You can move income. You can't move land or property. Milton Friedman once said "the least bad tax is the tax on the unimproved value of property" - he was talking about a land value tax. His only criticism of it was that most people don't like to pay tax in a large lump sum. It's far less painful to have it taken out of your monthly income at source. Most people are used to living month to month in that way when it comes to finances.

[@Adam-nb6im]

PLEASE fire the person in the office who’s so obsessed with emojis. I imagine it’s a “quirky” person in their late twenties. It’s so unprofessional.

[@orourke1972]

So crazy....pretty much every business person in America that earns more than $250K does this

[@johndenverfan]

Jimmy is a Legend

[@DukeOfKidderminster]

Cameron never said anything about Gary Barlow though, did he? I wonder why.

[@NikoMikkanen]

Or his own family...

[@andrewharper1609]

What Gary Barlow did was fund real businesses. I know because I introduced funding to the projects and met the real entrepreneurs who created the real projects involved. Gary Barlow did nothing wrong legally or morally (unless you include releasing music of dubious merit, I never did like Take That I find them bland). Which is more than can be said of Government.

[@lwaves]

Or his own taxes, or those of his colleagues, or those of his business friends who are all doing the same.

[@SamFisher69420]

to think i wouldn't know how to react properly if it weren't for that laughing/crying emoji in the thumbnail

[@timnewnham6526]

Handled that like a boss

[@arckocsog253]

You gotta love the British humour.

[@rossparkhead4871]

Wonder if David Cameron will ever own up to his own flaws?

[@AlbinoJedi]

Totally agree with him here.

[@scotttocs]

David Cameron talking about tax and hard earned money. Pot, kettle, black.

[@TwelvetreeZ]

Oh hey, character development!

[@themadplotter]

4:05 Jimmy does an impression of James Cordon.

[@onesong2001]

How do you know Jimmy is not just being a bit of a c u next Tuesday?

[@TheOriginalDalamanza]

What a legend

[@davidblott]

Can’t actually argue with what he did since he didn’t actually break the law. Jimmy Carr legend

[@nickotis2497]

Why pay it back when the corporations pay nothing

[@chrismanuel9768]

I still love this man

[@Hoganply]

The guilty setting laws is never a good idea. It'll always go one of two extreme ways: all the freedom, or none of it.

[@readmore7180]

Yes let's fix the tax system, we should start with abolishing the TV tax

[@BobbyLCollins]

It's infuriating to watch Cameron speak here and now know he was doing the exact. same. thing. Bloody hypocrite.

[@paulmallon9292]

This is text book over compensation.

[@wonderwend1]

He is such a good sport about it

[@MilesBellas]

4:30 40% is too much for people 20% by everyone is better

[@rorrschach8339]

I love Jimmy Carr. I've never personally blamed him for the situation he was in. I'd blame the accountant. Anyone who was asked the question "Do you want to pay less tax?" would say yes if they didn't understand the moral implications of that, and this issue is really a moral issue and not a legal one. Since this issue has been brought to light and the backlash against Jimmy I would say if I was asked that question I would say no, because I now understand the moral issues surrounding tax evasion/avoidance. But that's only because this issue was brought out into the open here. The accountant should've had an obligation to explain the moral consequences of paying less tax. My personal stance on tax evasion/avoidance is this: Taxes pay for the society you live in. If you're not paying your share of taxes, not only are you not supporting the society you live in, you're also disrespecting your fellow taxpayers by avoiding your obligation to them to carry your weight.