A gem of a quote from Austin Mitchell, a senior backbench Labour MP, concerning the tax paid (or not) by the largest 700 companies in the UK, “‘I think the committee ought to look into this. More and more companies are using financial engineering to avoid paying the social rent they owe this country”. (Accountancy Age)
Erm. “social rent”? Thats a new description for a tax bill.
Might it be better though if our parliamentarians stuck to calling a spade a spade and simply referred to taxation in its time honoured description as, er, taxation. Terms like “social rent” start to bring in subjective assessment of the process – taxation is not subjective, its objective according to the countrys laws. If you don’t like them Austin, then you are surely better placed than most of us to do something about them – and thats why, amongst other things, you were elected – but please don’t start moralising from the side lines.