Jimmy Carr's credibility is toast

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/ja...lity-is-toast/

Jimmy Carr's credibility is toast

Jimmy Carr: perfectly legally and sensibly channelling his earnings through Jersey

I can think of at least two differences between me and the brilliantly funny, heroically near-the-knuckle comedian and satirist Jimmy Carr. One is that I don't earn in excess of £3.3 million a year. And the other is that in the unlikely event that I ever did and were – very sensibly - to channel it through an elaborate Jersey tax avoidance scheme, I could do so without the slightest stain on my conscience or my credibility.

Why? Because, as I make perfectly clear in every article I ever write on the subject, I believe that tax is legalised theft and that earners have a sacred duty to stop as much money as they (legally) can getting into the filthy hands of Big Government, because it will only go and spend it on something completely useless. It doesn't matter whether someone is an entrepreneur like my brilliant brother Charlie (of Market Invoice) or a hugely talented comic like Carr, they make important contributions to the British economy because they create value and add to the economic growth from which the whole nation benefits. Their reward, therefore, for their talent and risk should be to keep as much of the fruits of their labour as they reasonably can, consistent with their duty to help fund the basic external costs of defending their liberties – eg defence of the realm, property rights, etc.

But imagine how much of a hypocrite you'd have to be to put your money through a (perfectly legal) tax avoidance scheme, when you had earned that money in sketches like this one from Channel 4's relentlessly Left-wing 10 O'Clock Live:

Last year on Channel 4 Jimmy Carr took on Barclays for carrying out a tax-avoidance scheme. Carr donned a blonde wig to play a female bank clerk. ‘Why don’t you apply for the Barclays’ 1 per cent tax scam,’ she announced to her customers. ‘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.’

How could you live with your conscience? How could you face your fans? How could you expect your sixth-form spray-on-Lefty politics to be taken seriously ever again by all your sixth-form spray-on Lefty mates like Charlie Brooker and Graham Linehan and Ben Goldacre and all the rest of the Guardianista Twitter gang who think the only solution is bigger government spending, higher taxes, more regulation and greater impositions on "the Rich"?

Actually, scrub that last question. I expect half of them are up to the same game themselves.

I agree with James Delingpole, taxation is theft - why and who said that people who are wealthier have to pay 'their fair share'? taxation after all is legal theft, the only difference is that a government does it. Obviously we need some form of taxation to run the basic services of government, but we oughtn't to tax the wealthier more as a) it's unfair and b) it punishes wealth creation - hence why I support the UKIP policy of a economically beneficial flat tax where we all pay an eventual 35% odd of tax - regardless of income.

With Carr however, as a seemingly left wing comedian, it's different. He's produced sketches on the extreme left wing television show 10 o'clock Live which slam companies such as Barclays Bank for only paying around 1% while he has been at it at the same time. The same goes for the Guardian newspaper which constantly drones about tax evasion, but which also was found to have been avoiding tax with its tax base being in the Cayman islands.

To the left, taxation is only for everybody other than themselves.

Thoughts?

[lawrawrrr]

While I don't think there should be a flat tax rate, it's absolutely not right that big companies such as Barclays the the papers are giving next-to-nothing. Jimmy Carr (if he had any credibility in the first place) has made himself look like a complete fool - he must have realised it'd get out somehow or the other...

[The Don]

I never understood why the percentage was higher for those who earn more. They would be paying more than those less fortunate than themselves anyway so what's the point of increasing the percentage as well?

[Inseriousity.]

lol keeping habbo old fashioned? undertaker will love you

Yes it's hypocrisy to do the very thing you criticise but you're very good with those generalisations Dan. A lot of left-wingers pay their taxes as well y'know.

[Ardemax]

I don't really find Jimmy Carr that funny, but this is.

[Chippiewill]

a) it's unfair and b) it punishes wealth creation

c) the top dogs end up paying even less because tax avoiding makes too much sense

I don't agree that taxation is theft, considering that if you really want you can just leave the country and go somewhere you don't get taxed, therefore tax is optional to some extent. However what I do agree is that a flat tax rate.

[GommeInc]

It's shocking he's been caught out, and it's not helped that he made a mockery of tax avoiders as part of a sketch in 10 O'Clock Live
The tax debate is a sore subject though, then again anything that involves money and sharing always is.

[luce]

At the end of the day everyone will want to save some money and he is just writing his material to what will get the biggest laugh which at the moment is stuff to do with the economy because it's all everyone is talking about.

[Chippiewill]

and it's not helped that he made a mockery of tax avoiders as part of a sketch in 10 O'Clock Live

I doubt he personally wrote those sketches.

[Empired]

Although I do find Jimmy Carr pretty funny, he brought all this upon himself. There's a saying that goes "If you live in a glass house, don't throw stones" which is basically what Carr's just done. Yes, he is just a comedian trying to make people laugh, but I would never be as stupid to do something like this, being who he is.
At the end of the day I do still like him though. I hope he stays in comedy