Comments on: Sign the petition to demand Cameron’s pal Aschroft pays back the £127 million he avoided

By: £200m of aid budget to be spent on St Helena airport – after lobbying from Lord Ashcroft | Left Foot Forward

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:25:08 +0000

[...] Because the decision comes after lobbying from Tory donor and £127m tax avoider Lord [...]

By: Miladysa

Miladysa — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:41:33 +0000

RT @andrewroche Sign the petition to demand Cameron’s pal Aschroft pays back the £127 million he avoided http://ff.im/-gSZA3

By: Andrew Roche

Andrew Roche — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:36:28 +0000

Sign the petition to demand Cameron’s pal Aschroft pays back the £127 million he avoided http://ff.im/-gSZA3

By: Hague in June: I have no reason to think Ashcroft hasn't complied | Left Foot Forward

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:38:56 +0000

[...] yesterday that Ashcroft had, in fact, been a ‘non dom’ during this period and avoided £127 million in tax, Left Foot Forward wonders why the shadow foreign secretary told Jeremy Paxman repeatedly in June [...]

By: Martin McIvor

Martin McIvor — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:11:09 +0000

RT @leftfootfwd: Sign the petition to demand Cameron's pal Aschroft pays back the £127 million he avoided http://cli.gs/BqYPj

By: Millions stand behind me | Left Foot Forward

Millions stand behind me | Left Foot Forward — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:03:24 +0000

[...] stand behind me On the day that a petition was launched asking Lord Ashcroft to pay back the £127 million in unpaid tax and it emerged that [...]

By: John77

John77 — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:11:15 +0000

You might as well say that if his returns were 100% pa he would have paid £4bn in tax. The Mirror’s figures are cloud-cuckoo-land.
Firstly investment returns over the last decade have been marginally less than zero (source: FTSE and/or APCIMS) on a balanced portfolio, not just on the FTSE-100 stocks. Secondly the UK has double-taxation agreements with the US and most other major i.e. he does not have to pay tax on the same twice, so he would only be liable for the excess of UK personal tax rates over local tax rates. The main tax liability that he has been avoiding is IHT which at 40% on £1.1bn comes out at £440m. But he hasn’t died yet, so actual loss is relatively small.
The Independent on Sunday found “party headquarters pump more than £1.1m into the coffers of constituency parties in Britain’s most marginal seats.
Tory activists raised another £5m locally”
That means Central Funds, including Ashcroft, paid for 18% not 78%. Whoever wrote this needs a new pair of spectacles if he/she cannot distinguish a 1 from a 7!. Tory claims that as Ashcroft’s donations comprise less than 5% of party income, some of which funds specific HQ costs, and CCHQ contributions is 18% of marginal seats spending his support is less than 2% of the amount they spend in marginal seats are specious but a lot closer to the truth than LFF’s 78%. The Editor should have noticed that 78% didn’t make sense as it exceeded Ashcroft’s total donations to the Tories over that period!

By: Mr Eugenides

Mr Eugenides — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:03:11 +0000

What’s interesting about this thread is how few people are actually coming out in support of this nonsense.

Either you change the law to prevent non-doms from funding political parties and requiring all parties, Labour and Lib Dems included, to repay money paid to them, or you are playing kindergarten politics and should belt up.

By: davehowells

davehowells — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:58:46 +0000

RT @leftfootfwd: Demand #CAshcroft pays back £127 million he avoided: http://cli.gs/BqYPj Sign petition: http://is.gd/9wOSp

By: Shamik Das

Shamik Das — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:30:13 +0000

RT @wdjstraw @leftfootfwd Demand #CAshcroft pays back the £127 million he avoided: http://cli.gs/BqYPj Sign the petition: http://is.gd/9wOSp