Is George Osborne Dodging the issue of Tax Avoidance? Friends in high Places!

Nice video put together by the campaign group 38 Degrees alleging that the Chancellor, George Osborne, is dodging the issue of tax avoidance.

According to the group, tax dodging costs the UK up to £120 billion every year. Osborne himself also stands accused of dodging paying £1.6 million in inheritance tax while clobbering everyone else with a VAT rise. He is the beneficiary of a £4 million trust fund, which will mean that the family fortune will pass to him almost tax free.

Earlier this year, Osborne along with his wife and two children, took a skiing holiday in Klosters as the guest of Caspar Rock, who runs a £3.5 billion investment fund. He stayed at his £1.7 million chalet. Casper`s wife (Kate) is also a top official in the Tory Party.

Osborne, also a multi-millionaire, likes to ingratiate himself with the rich and powerful. Another friend is Nat Rothschild. Before becoming Chancellor, Osborne, stayed as a guest of Rothschild - along with Peter Mandelson - at his holiday retreat on the Greek Island of Corfu. He also enjoyed the hospitality of the Russian billionaire oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, who invited him to stay aboard his yacht while Osborne tried to solicit a £50,000 donation for the Tory Party.

Given the tax rises and the savage cut-backs that are being imposed on people and public services, as the Con-Dem millionaire government seeks to cut public spending, attention has naturally been drawn to those fat cats who avoid paying tax by adopting tax avoidance measures. For example, it has been alleged that HM Revenue & Customs let Vodafone off a £6 billion bill on profits channelled through a Luxembourg subsidiary. The tax agency denies the claim.

Critics such as UK Uncut, say that Sir Philip Green the head of Arcadia Group, paid out a £1.2 billion dividend in 2005 out of Arcadia retail group to a family trust (his wife) which campaigners say was in reality his income which should have been taxed as such. Sir Philip`s wife Tina, lives in Monaco and as a resident of Monaco, she was not not required to pay tax on the money.

Recently, Sir Philip, was appointed by David Cameron to head a Whitehall spending review. When questioned by a journalist about his suitability for the post and his financial affairs, he reportedly called the journalist a 'fucking tosser'.