The Boy George Osborne interviewed by Andrew Marr:Osborne: "Well, both the spirit of the tax law, as well as the letter of the tax law. That is what we are asking. Of course we've got a sanction, which is … "
Marr: "What's the sanction?"
Osborne: "Well the sanction is an Inland Revenue which is going to have enhanced capability to make sure that people pay what is due. And that's not just true of banks. That is also true of rich people who avoid tax because they are just like the benefit cheats at a time like this. Both … "
Marr: "Does that include people like some of your colleagues who have shifted money into companies with their wives … "
Osborne: "I'm talking about tax evasion. Tax evasion is totally unacceptable at a time like this."
Marr: "But what about the rich people who avoid tax?"
Osborne: "It's unacceptable at the best of times. It is immoral at a time like this. We are actually, in a period when we are cutting quite a lot of budgets, we are increasing the budget here of the inspectors who go after the tax accounts of the richest people and the richest companies to make sure that they are paying their fair due too."
It strikes us that there are two confusions here and if we were a Tory-voting bankers we'd be worried about them.
One is that tax evasion isn't just immoral and unacceptable (Osborne made the same mistake in his party conference speech), it's illegal. People occasionally go to jail for it."
And in appearing to confuse evasion with (perfectly legal) tax avoidance – what you or we might do if we upped our pension contributions, which are tax deductible – he may be muddying the waters on purpose, but we suspect not.
