If a tax dodge looks too good to be true, it probably is
Governments guard PAYE tax jealously – but the British Revenue’s clampdown on a long-running avoidance scheme is so draconian that it has lost political support
Governments love PAYE. Not only is the yield predictable, but PAYE tax hits the coffers in a steady stream during the year. It doesn’t come in in big unpredictable lumps like corporation tax payments or income tax paid by the self-employed. As last week’s exchequer returns showed, it is a major component of the total tax take (in Ireland’s case about 25 per cent of the total) and therefore must be jealously guarded.
