What good are tax planners?

John Hiddleston

In today’s Britain tax planners seem rather unpopular... In late October 2010 the BBC news website reported the blockading of one quoted multinational's shops in protest against its use of tax planning. A few weeks earlier the same website had carried an article discussing a particular wealthy entrepreneur. The article asked whether his tax planning amounted to ’a repugnant refusal to pay his way’.

I’m not having a go at the BBC. It’s just reporting what many people think at the moment. After all the Exchequer faces a gigantic deficit and the Coalition is trying to correct that. Of course people react to the pain that this causes.

Curiously I for one became a tax planner at least partly to help people. I also wanted to help their businesses – without which I personally think we'd all be worse off. In contrast with much of the public at the moment...

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