Balance: Jeremy Corbyn's tax return

Fretwired

Time for Corbyn to take some flak. Jeremy Corbyn is facing questions after failing to include thousands of pounds of income from his state pension on his tax return. Mr Corbyn, who turned 65 in May 2014, received a state pension of around £6,000 a year but did not include details of the income on the hand-written return he published on Monday. He also failed to declare on the form income from a pension from his time in local Government, although Labour insisted it had been taxed at source. He has also amassed a pension pot in excess of £1 million - not exactly poor is he ... 

#isthereanhonestpolitician?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/12/jeremy-corbyn-admits-failing-to-include-state-pension-income-on/

PolarityMan

Thing with Corbyn is it's almost certainly incopmetence rather than dishonesty. 

Fretwired

PolarityMan said:

Thing with Corbyn is it's almost certainly incopmetence rather than dishonesty. 

Agree .. but it begs the question who do you vote for? Mr Dishonest or Mr Incompetent?

lloyd

Why are people insisting on making this a political divide? It's crazy, it's a rich/poor/self employed divide, it doesn't matter what your politics are the VAST majority of people-myself included and I'm probably a left leaning socialist if I had to class myself as anything-will try to minimise legally what they pay out in taxes, no one phones HRMC up at the end of the month and says they've got a bit left over if they fancy some more do they? No one dances a jig when they fork over a hefty sum in inheritance tax and gets a warm glow as they're boosting the nations coffers and helping pay nurses wages.

Philly_Q

I think his tax return is bizarre.  

Here's a bloke who has a pretty decent salary, seems to live a super-thrifty kind of lifestyle, I can't imagine he spends everything he earns, and yet he had not a single pound of bank interest?  Made no charitable payments under Gift Aid?  I hadn't even thought about the pension, I didn't realise he was quite that old.

I'm not suggesting anything dodgy, but he simply hasn't filled in the return properly - or on time.  It's all a bit slapdash for a prospective leader of the country.

jpttaylor

This was always the trouble with Corbyn fanatics making him into the great white hope of British politics. This should have been an open goal for Labour - all they had to do was fill in a form properly and yet they've still managed to fuck it up.

hungrymark

PolarityMan;1035462" said:

Thing with Corbyn is it's almost certainly incopmetence rather than dishonesty. 

Almost certainly? How come? How do we come to that judgement about one politician but another about somebody else when we know basically the same stuff about each?

hungrymark

lloyd;1035477" said:

Why are people insisting on making this a political divide? It's crazy, it's a rich/poor/self employed divide, it doesn't matter what your politics are the VAST majority of people-myself included and I'm probably a left leaning socialist of I had to class myself as anything-will try to minimise legally what they pay out in taxes, no one phones HRMC up at the end of the month and says they've got a bit left over if they fancy some more do they? No one dances a jig when they fork over a hefty sum in inheritance tax and gets a warm glow as they're boosting the nations coffers and helping pay nurses wages.

This is exactly what I'm thinking. My parents are pretty wealthy and, getting on a bit, are concerned that a lot of their estate will go to the government. I don't particularly need the inheritance but they've been talking about getting round it one way or the other. They have friends who have actually advised them on ways to do this but who still won't bat an eyelid at criticising Cameron's mother for apparently doing the same thing. At the risk of going a bit Evilmags, there is a slight hint of 'culture of envy' about it all.

tabbycat

balance?

no, not really. not at all, in fact. but keep pretending and hiding in denial if the thought of a more equal society threatens your privilege bubble.

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

upton sinclair.

hungrymark

As much as I welcome his presence in leadership politics (it's interesting), Corbyn's probably not the messiah. He is capable of fault and it is justifiable to point this out.

Teetonetal

tabbycat said:

balance?

no, not really. not at all, in fact. but keep pretending and hiding in denial if the thought of a more equal society threatens your privilege bubble.

The problem with a more equal society is this: Humans are inherently, at a base level, not equal. 

What you need is equality of opportunity.

ICBM

Yes, disappointing that he couldn't get this right. If he wasn't capable of doing it himself he should have got one of his staff to. By not doing, he's turned a opportunity into an own goal.

quarky

To be fair, "Labour leader can't be trusted with finances" isn't exactly a news story. It is a shame that it has got to this level though.

Moe_Zambeek

So that's tax evasion rather than tax avoidance, then? Shocking!

chillidoggy

I'm surprised it appears that Corbyn can't fill a form in properly. I think the bloke's a proper knob-end, but this is ridiculous. As for the rest of them, I wouldn't trust any of them to empty a poor box without nicking something.

CabbageCat

tabbycat said:

balance?

no, not really. not at all, in fact. but keep pretending and hiding in denial if the thought of a more equal society threatens your privilege bubble.

Privilege is not something to be ashamed of. That Tory Schoolboys picture gets churned out regularly as if being rich was the same thing as being bad. You can't tell from that picture whether those are good or bad people. People who think that they can are exhibiting a bigotry that they would probably find distasteful in others.

Personally I think Cameron and Corbyn have got more important things to do with their time than scour their accounts for something that furious internetties might preach about. Politics should be about whether you want a fairer society or, umm, a fairer society (depending on the lefty or righty definition of "fair"), not which politician has the grubbiest laundry.

PC_Dave

I hate politics and all things political with a passion. The party leaders act like petulant children, every single one of them appear incapable of being truthful, and the general public end up having to decide which circus they want to ruin the country even more each election. Jokers.

terada

lloyd;1035477" said:

Why are people insisting on making this a political divide? It's crazy, it's a rich/poor/self employed divide, it doesn't matter what your politics are the VAST majority of people-myself included and I'm probably a left leaning socialist of I had to class myself as anything-will try to minimise legally what they pay out in taxes, no one phones HRMC up at the end of the month and says they've got a bit left over if they fancy some more do they? No one dances a jig when they fork over a hefty sum in inheritance tax and gets a warm glow as they're boosting the nations coffers and helping pay nurses wages.

Completely agree. It's human nature

lloyd

I'm no Bullingdon club lover, not a tory, nor a lover of the over-privileged, but.....

Again, to bring politics and wealth into it like some kind of yardstick is fucking stupid.

Tony Benn-one of the most scrupled, well meaning and universally respected politicians out there was born to a Viscount and clearly fucking minted.

You don't have to be born poor to be a socialist nor do you have to be born rich to be a tory.

How many of you will look or have looked to minimise inheritance tax when you're going to be left the family home? How many of you have offered to pay cash to a tradesman? If you have then you're hypocrites, these are the tools of the working man to avoid tax, the rich dance to a different tune.

I think Cameron is a cunt BTW and think Corbyn has his heart, if not his head at times, in the right place.

Troy

I think some of this is based on jealousy, they're rich and i'm not so I must hate them. Labour supporters seem to do this very well.

More pits were closed under a Labour government compared to when Maggie was in power yet she got the brunt and Labour blaming her for the closures. 

Under the current conservative government they have done more to close the tax evasion loop holes then Labour did, if Labour supporters are so up in arms at this latest disclosure then why didn't they close the loopholes whilst Labour was in government? Double standards by Labour as usual...

It's not that I'm a tory voter its just the amount of BS I see from the left side on a regular basis.

 

Teetonetal

lloyd said:

I'm no Bullingdon club lover, not a tory, nor a lover of the over-privileged, but.....

Again, to bring politics and wealth into it like some kind of yardstick is fucking stupid.

Tony Benn-one of the most scrupled, well meaning and universally respected politicians out there was born to a Viscount and clearly fucking minted.

You don't have to be born poor to be a socialist nor do you have to be born rich to be a tory.

How many of you will look or have looked to minimise inheritance tax when you're going to be left the family home? How many of you have offered to pay cash to a tradesman? If you have then you're hypocrites, these are the tools of the working man to avoid tax, the rich dance to a different tune.

I think Cameron is a cunt BTW and think Corbyn has his heart, if not his head at times, in the right place.

I agree with all of that. 

But I am very worried about the thought of a prime minister who doesn't have his head in the right place, most of the time. JC just comes across as monumentally nieve..