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...