When did someone who left his child in a pub get to moralise about anything>

I appreciate as a comedian, people will expect me to ‘make light’ of this situation, but I’m not going to in this statement as this is obviously a serious matter.

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.”

I now realise I’ve made a terrible error of judgement.

Although I’ve been advised the K2 Tax scheme is entirely legal, and has been fully disclosed to HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs), I’m no longer involved in it and will in future conduct my financial affairs much more responsibly.

Apologies to everyone. Jimmy Carr

Via Twitter.

Surely there must be a servant who could "take one for the team" and be sacked?

Jimmy Carr is a very sharp comedian, one of the better ones to come on the scene of late. Has an edge, and doesn't give much of a fsck.

Credit to him for the above. Seems like a decent enough bloke to me.

Cameron though is an asswipe. The public purse has been utterly raped by banks and bankers, Vodafone and its ilk, with connivance of top staffers at HMRC (Private Eye has been on the case for years but nothing has been done about Hartnett's Vodafone deal). Carr is doing OK but really the tax he's likely to avoid is feck all compared with the trillions they could have gone after, but won't, for the simple reasons that (a) it's their mates that the deals are with and (b) that would not be the way to line up cosy jobs (like Hartnett) when they leave government or civil service.

Plus, HMRC had already at least several months ago made it well known that they were going to start looking closely at these schemes to see if they could close them down. (Which they could - it is to me a very clear scam, if you look at the reality of the situation) and even if they couldn't, legislation could be passed in a breath to do so, so singling out Jimmy Carr is just shameless showboating and sadly typical of the sort of people we now have 'running' our country.

Wonder what percentage tax Hartnett is now paying on his income?

At least, though, we will soon see a string of front page stories on the favourable tax arrangements of many leading Tories, who will no doubt be bollocking Cameron in private for poking a sleeping dog. I'd bet a pound to a penny that many of them are also into K2, which would be a damn interesting list, if someone would please leak it.

Now that is a good one.

If singling our Carr has that effect then that will be great. I think Carr is OK as a comedian but it's a bit rich (no pun intended) for him to be on a show like 10 O'Clock Live! that rips into the establishment and yet here he has been found out being as bad as them. He talk the talk but he doesn't walk the walk.

However that really is a side issue and if this gets more of who is doing this out into the open then all well and good.

As to legislation surely all that needs to be done is legislate what you can do to avoid tax and everything else is by definition classed as evasion?

So you can put some money into an ISA and you can get tax relief on pension contributions and that is it. Everything else is taxable and doing stuff like setting yourself up as a limited company when that is a sham just there for tax purposes is classed as evasion.

There are many people easily pleased and willing to spend their hard earned on this unfunny character IMHO.'"

Cameron on Carr: "it's morally wrong".

Cameron on Philip Green: "I won't comment on an individual's taxes".

The trouble with that is that everything done is perfectly legal. There is no law against setting up a service company. Tax laws on company income, profits etc are equally clear cut, as are the provisions regarding offshore taxation, non-doms tax position etc.

What I think HMRC don't do properly (and maybe this is the more specific legislation they need, I'm no expert) is catch what I'd call "associated operations". In the case of Jimmy Carr, how that would work is to look at the reality of the situation, which is that in truth, people are paying lots of money to watch Jimmy Carr, and Jimmy Carr is receiving that money as an income. If that much is clear (as in his case it seems to be) then all you need is HMRC to have the power to choose to tax him as if he was being paid it personally in cash, and choose not to tax it as it would if all the associated operations by which the cash arrives at the same place but via a circuitous route, were the correct taxable vehicle. These would instead be deemed associated operations and while not illegal, not effective for tax purposes.

However, I'd like to think that any such cases would start with the biggest fiddlers.

The question of legality is probably not black and white. The peddlars of these schemes get Counsel;s opnion but an opinion is just that. I am sure if HMG want to they can make a case that many of these are illegal. I hope they do and I hope not just the Carr's of this world but the people who push them get punished accordingly.

I wonder if Cameron considers that his father was 'Morally wrong'? Cameron seniors fortune was made providing exactly the type of service that Carr took advantage of, including schemes based in Jersey! Cameron himself inherited some of the millions that his father left and only his UK inheritance was declared. Cameron has made an individuals tax arrangements a matter for public debate now and Id therefore like him to clarify whether he has benefited or indeed still retains any tax efficient off shore accounts. PMQ subject perhaps?

From what I heard in a radio discussion yesterday, the main problem centres around HMRC's legal budget for counsel's opinion. Quite often it has been spent by the end of June each year, so they're running "in the dark" for nine months

On Twitter's 'Twop Twips'DAVID CAMERON. Use the extra daylight today to have a fu[ic[/iking long hard look at yourself.'"

rlI like this.rl

There are many people easily pleased and willing to spend their hard earned on this unfunny character IMHO.'"